Will CS provide a roof on Jaipur Collector’s head?

Jaipur: In the state administration, the bungalows of officials right from Chief Secretary to DGP to even bungalows of 32 district Collectors are ear-marked, but surprisingly and sadly, the bungalow for Jaipur Collector has not been ear-marked.

This situation is not a new one, rather has been prevailing for the past 34 years and all the Collectors that came in all these years, either took small houses or huge bungalows on rent and even at times, stayed in duplex flats or at other times, in their own houses.

The responsibility to provide a befitting and ear-marked bungalow to Collector falls on GAD, but it seems that over the course of 34 years, the department has forgotten its responsibility.

The current Collector of Jaipur district - Rajan Vishal - is 50th Collector, and sadly he resides in Heera Bagh flats, which according to bureaucratic observers, is not befitting the standard of a Collector.

In districts, the bungalows of Collectors is known by one and all so that at times of need, the general public can easily approach the Collector for help.

But the situation of Jaipur Collector is entirely reverse. Till 1970, Collectors used to reside in a bungalow specially earmarked near the Collector office at Banipark.

However, after this, this space was allotted to Rajasthan Congress and after some time, the Congress party handed it over to Youth Congress and since then, this bungalow is with the Youth wing of the Grand- Old- Party.

More than two dozen Collectors have come and gone since 1970, but they all stayed at separate locations throughout their stints.

Officials like SN Thanvi, VS Singh, Shrimat Pandey and Sudhansh Pant stayed at the chair for 3-4 years and in this long duration the general public didn’t know about the Collector’s bungalows, but only a handful of them ever knew about where the remaining Collectors resided.

It is also important to note here that in the past three years, the current Gehlot government has shuffled four Collectors in Jaipur in which Jagroop Singh Yadav stayed at the helm for merely 11 months, while Jogaram stayed for merely 7 months and Antar Singh Nehra was at the helm for 17 months.

This means that by the time the general public would come to know of the residence of Collectors, a new official was posted in their place.

It is indeed a laughable aspect about Collectors of Jaipur especially considering that in the past 34 years, several CMs and Chief Secretaries came and went and no one ever batted an eyelid over the issue.

The matter, thus, now rests in CS Usha Sharma’s court, who is a capable, hard-working & an experienced officer, who not only has the CM’s trust, but also the support of bureaucracy.

Therefore, she is in a position to take any bold decision and it is thus expected of her to earmark a bungalow for the District Collector, thereby, putting an end to the issue that has been lying pending for past 34 years!