Projects halt as HC ruling leaves Jaipur outskirts in admin limbo

Jaipur: Development projects have come to a grinding halt in over 600 villages on the outskirts of Jaipur following a high court order issued on March 18.The disruption began after the court stayed operations of the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) in areas recently added to its jurisdiction. These newly included regions cover 693 villages across 17 tehsils and four municipalities. Before the stay, the state govt had expanded the JDA limits around eight months ago, authorising it to oversee land-use change, land allotment and regulation in these areas.“Since the court’s interim order, all such processes have effectively frozen. Applications related to land conversion, allotment and regulation cannot be processed by the JDA. At the same time, the land revenue department is also unable to step in because the areas had already been shifted out of its control under the earlier notification. The result is a complete administrative deadlock,” stated a senior urban development and housing (UDH) department official.Residents are now facing uncertainty over whom to approach for routine civic grievances and development approvals. Public works and planning decisions have stalled, affecting both governance and local growth in the expanding peri-urban belt around Jaipur.The situation is likely continue for at least another eight to 12 months, until the JDA finalises and implements Master Plan 2047.UDH officials said that a similar crisis took place in 2011, when revised master plans for urban local bodies were not issued on time, causing major delays in land-use approvals under Section 90B.“At that time the govt issued a notification and asked the land revenue department to continue land conversion and allotment in these rural areas until the new master plan got approved. The BJP govt shall impose the same model now,” another official said. .