Will the partition plans of Jaipur float in water woes?

JAIPUR: The upcoming partition of Jaipur into four new districts—Jaipur North, Jaipur South, Dudu and Kotputli-Behror—has set 66 lakh residents of the region guessing about which district they are going to be a part of.
The state government is yet to clarify the demarcation of the 19 new districts that CM Ashok Gehlot announced on Friday. Sources told TOI that the demarcation of Jaipur city is unclear even to the town planners. Dudu is likely to get the biggest area while Kotputli may get most of the industrial zones, they said.
The distribution of resources like water, power, natural resources, industrial area, agricultural zones, etc. may require a series of discussions, political interferences, and even legal remedies.
Experts say water is going to be a major point of discussion among at least three new districts—Dudu, Jaipur North, and Jaipur South.
“The supply to Jaipur is coming through groundwater, Jamwaramgarh and Bisalpur Dam. Jaipur North is effluent in water resources while Dudu and Jaipur South have most areas under dark zones. Areas like Jhotwara are in the dark zone and yet utilise the highest volume of water in the entire Jaipur district,” said LK Sharma, head of the department of environment at Central University of Rajasthan.
“Once the demarcation of the new districts is done, the overdependent areas may no longer enjoy any special privilege, and that may create a struggle for a share of the available water resources for Jaipur,” added Sharma. The auditing of water should be done with the help of remote sensing and satellite images to ensure proper allocation of water resources, he suggested.
Kotputli-Behror has special economic zones (SEZ) and industrial areas under RIICO, which also act as revenue generators for the local administration. These revenue streams will be beneficial for the new district while other districts will have to develop industrial areas afresh.
The move will severely impact the Jaipur Master Plan 2025, which has demarcated land use for urban living, industries, agriculture, and barren land.
“The plan that will impact Jaipur in the next 20-30 years has to be redesigned now. It was made considering Jaipur as a single territory,” said a town planner.