Rajasthan

Rajasthan at a glance

Rajasthan is India's largest state by area, at 3,42,239 sq km. The 2011 Census counted 6.85 crore people here. The capital is Jaipur. Most of the west is the Thar desert, the Aravalli hills cut across the middle from southwest to northeast, and the east and south are greener, with rivers such as the Chambal and the Mahi.

• Districts: 41, grouped into 7 divisions (since 30 December 2024)
• Tehsils: 425 (LGD, October 2026)
• Gram Panchayats: 14,403, after the 2025 reorganisation
• Panchayat Samitis: 457, and one Zila Parishad in each of the 41 districts
• Vidhan Sabha: 200 seats; Lok Sabha: 25 seats

Village government runs under the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. Each village panchayat is headed by a Sarpanch, each Panchayat Samiti by a Pradhan and each Zila Parishad by a Zila Pramukh.

The 7 divisions and 41 districts

Each division is headed by a Divisional Commissioner, and each district by a District Collector. This is the list as it stands after the changes of 30 December 2024.

Most districts are named after their headquarters town. The exceptions: Didwana-Kuchaman is run from Didwana, Khairthal-Tijara from Khairthal, and Kotputli-Behror has offices in both Kotputli and Behror.

New and abolished districts, 2023 to 2024

Until 2023 Rajasthan had 33 districts. In August 2023 the state created 17 new districts and three new divisions (Banswara, Pali and Sikar), taking the count to 50 districts and 10 divisions. On 28 December 2024 the state cabinet decided to keep only 8 of the new districts, and the order of 30 December 2024 abolished the other 9 along with the three new divisions. That's how Rajasthan arrived at 41 districts and 7 divisions.

The 8 districts that stayed:

• Balotra (from Barmer)
• Beawar (from parts of Ajmer, Pali and Bhilwara)
• Deeg (from Bharatpur)
• Didwana-Kuchaman (from Nagaur)
• Khairthal-Tijara (from Alwar)
• Kotputli-Behror (from parts of Jaipur and Alwar)
• Phalodi (from Jodhpur)
• Salumbar (from Udaipur)

The 9 districts that were abolished, and where their areas are now:

The tehsil positions above are from the Local Government Directory (LGD) as of October 2026. If an old certificate or document mentions one of the abolished districts, it is still valid; new applications go to the district your tehsil belongs to today.

The 2025 panchayat reorganisation

In 2025 Rajasthan redrew its village panchayats before the next election. The state issued guidelines in February 2025, and the work went district by district. The result:

The ward rule was also fixed. A gram panchayat gets 7 wards for a population of up to 3,000, and 2 more wards for every additional 1,000 people. A Panchayat Samiti gets 15 wards for up to 1 lakh people, and 2 more for every additional 15,000.

The terms of the old panchayats ended in batches: 6,759 in January 2025, 704 in March 2025 and 3,847 in September and October 2025. In the gap, the outgoing Sarpanch ran the panchayat as administrator, with a committee of the former Up-Sarpanch and ward panches. After the High Court set deadlines for the polls (the last one being 15 November 2026), the State Election Commission announced the general election in October 2026.

In March 2025, after a High Court order, 12 newly created municipalities went back to being gram panchayats: Rishabhdev, Ghatol, Ponk, Raipur, Jawal, Rani, Khirni, Lalgarh Jatan, Ramdevra, Raniwara, Semari and Chawand.

Many villages now sit in a new panchayat or a new Panchayat Samiti. Official directories such as LGD can lag behind, so if your village shows the old panchayat, check with the Panchayat Samiti office.

Three-tier Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan

Rajasthan has a special place in this story: Panchayati Raj in India was launched at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. Today the system runs under the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, with three tiers.

Each gram panchayat also has ward panches, one per ward, and an Up-Sarpanch whom the ward panches elect from among themselves. The Panchayat Samiti has an Up-Pradhan and the Zila Parishad an Up-Pramukh, elected the same way as their heads.

The Gram Vikas Adhikari (formerly called Gram Sevak) is the panchayat's secretary: they keep its records and accounts and write the minutes. The Vikas Adhikari heads the Panchayat Samiti office and, under the Act, attends the Gram Sabha meetings or sends a nominee. The Gram Sabha, made up of every voter of the panchayat, must meet at least twice a year, and every ward also has a Ward Sabha that meets twice a year.

A no-confidence motion against a Sarpanch, Pradhan or Pramukh needs a notice signed by at least one-third of the directly elected members, and can't be brought in the first two years of the term (Section 37). The state government can remove an office-bearer for misconduct after a hearing (Section 38).

Panchayat elections 2026: the calendar

The State Election Commission (State Election Commissioner Rajeshwar Singh) announced the general election to all panchayats on 3 October 2026 and revised the polling dates on 6 October. Voting is in four phases. Ward panches and Sarpanches are elected on ballot paper and counted the same day; Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members are elected on EVMs.

Votes for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members are counted on 20 November. After that, the new members elect the Pradhans and Zila Pramukhs (and their deputies) in late November. Dates can change by order of the Commission, so check the notices on sec.rajasthan.gov.in before you plan.

About 1.55 lakh posts are being filled, most of them ward panches. 7,201 Sarpanch seats are reserved for women. There are about 4.03 crore voters and 45,384 polling stations. We add Sarpanch and ward results to each panchayat's page as they are declared.

Who keeps land records

Farm land records in Rajasthan come under the Revenue Department and the Board of Revenue at Ajmer. The chain of officials, from your village up:

• Patwari: keeps the records of a patwar circle (one or more villages): the jamabandi, the khasra (field) record and the girdawari (crop inspection). This is the person to meet first.
• Girdawar (Bhu-Abhilekh Nirikshak): supervises several patwar circles, called an ILR circle, and checks the Patwari's work.
• Naib Tehsildar and Tehsildar: run the tehsil. Namantaran (mutation), certificates and many revenue cases are handled here.
• SDM (Upkhand Adhikari): heads the sub-division and hears revenue cases and appeals.
• District Collector: the top revenue officer in the district, with the Divisional Commissioner and the Board of Revenue above.

You can see your jamabandi for free on Apna Khata, which also takes namantaran applications and shows their status. The site itself says the online copy is for information only and can't be used in a court or office. For a certified copy, apply at an e-Mitra kiosk.

Traditional regions of Rajasthan

People in Rajasthan often name their area by its old region rather than the district. These regions come from history, dialect and old princely states. They have no official boundaries, so the district lists below are a rough guide, and a district can sit across two regions.

• Marwar: the west and centre, around Jodhpur, with Barmer, Balotra, Phalodi, Pali, Jalore and Nagaur
• Mewar: the south, around Udaipur, with Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara and Salumbar
• Vagad: the far south, Dungarpur and Banswara
• Hadoti: the southeast, Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar
• Dhundhar: the area around Jaipur and Dausa
• Shekhawati: Jhunjhunu, Sikar and much of Churu, known for its painted havelis
• Mewat: the northeast, including Khairthal-Tijara and parts of Alwar and Deeg
• Braj: the east along the Uttar Pradesh border, Bharatpur, Deeg and Dholpur

Bikaner, Jaisalmer and the canal districts of the north have their own local names too. On our pages, the region is a note for context only; addresses and services always go by district and tehsil.

Scheduled Areas and PESA

Southern Rajasthan has a large Scheduled Tribe population, mostly Bhil, Meena and other communities. Under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the President's order of 19 May 2018 declared the Scheduled Areas of the state: all of Banswara, Dungarpur and Pratapgarh districts, and parts of Udaipur, Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Pali and Sirohi, about 5,697 villages in all.

In these areas the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, known as PESA, gives the Gram Sabha extra powers: a say over minor forest produce, local water bodies, minor minerals, village markets and beneficiary lists, and the right to be consulted before land is acquired.

The 2018 order names districts as they stood then. Salumbar was carved out of Udaipur in 2023, so some of its villages may fall in the scheduled part. To know whether your own village is scheduled, ask the Panchayat Samiti office or the Tribal Area Development office of your district.

The desert districts

The Thar covers most of western Rajasthan. Jaisalmer, Barmer, Balotra, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Phalodi and Churu are at its heart. Jaisalmer is the state's largest district, at about 38,401 sq km, yet it had only about 6.7 lakh people in 2011. Villages here are small and far apart, so a single gram panchayat can cover a very large area.

Water shapes life in these districts. Families store rainwater in a tanka (an underground tank), and the Indira Gandhi Canal brings river water to large parts of the northwest. In May 2016 Phalodi recorded 51 degrees Celsius, India's highest temperature on record.

Distances matter for services too. If your Panchayat Samiti or tehsil office is far away, the e-Mitra kiosk in your panchayat can do most applications, and Rajasthan Sampark (181) takes complaints by phone.

Portals and helplines

Most Rajasthan government services start with one login, the SSO ID. Make one with your Jan Aadhaar or Aadhaar and you can use it on most of the portals below. If you'd rather not do it yourself, an e-Mitra kiosk will apply for you for a small fee.

Corruption complaints go to the Anti-Corruption Bureau on 1064. Birth and death registration is done by the Gram Vikas Adhikari in villages on the Pehchan system, and you can get the certificate through e-Mitra. Government sites here sometimes load slowly or drop the connection; try again after a while, or ask at an e-Mitra kiosk.

Your rights: Lok Seva Guarantee and Right to Hearing

Rajasthan has two laws that help when an office sits on your work. The Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services Act, 2011 lists services, such as certificates and connections, that must be delivered within a fixed number of days. If the officer misses the deadline without good reason, you can appeal to the appellate officer named for that service, and the officer at fault can be fined. At launch the Act covered 153 services of 18 departments; the list has changed since.

The Rajasthan Right to Hearing Act, 2012, in force from 1 August 2012, gives you the right to be heard on a complaint about a government scheme or service by a named hearing officer, and to get a written decision.

In practice: always take a receipt with an application number, note the date, and if the time limit passes, write to the appellate officer with a copy of the receipt. Rajasthan Sampark (181) is the easiest way to put a complaint on record.