Utkarshraj Atmaram / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped.
People in parts of Madhya Pradesh who travel 100 to 150 km to reach their district headquarters will have to wait well beyond the state commission's report for any change, because the census rules out boundary changes until at least March 2027.
The Madhya Pradesh Administrative Unit Reorganisation Commission, which came into existence in March 2024, has surveyed 50 of the state's 55 districts and will hold divisional hearings with elected representatives from December, The Times of India reported. Its report on divisions, districts, tehsils, janpad panchayats and blocks is due by March. The state's boundaries were last reorganised in 1982.
The anomalies are well known. Budhni, in Sehore district, lies closer to Narmadapuram. Sanchi, in Raisen, is nearer Vidisha, and Mandideep is closer to Bhopal than to Raisen. Demands to make Nagda in Ujjain and Sihora in Jabalpur into districts are years old.
But Revenue Minister Karan Singh Verma told the Assembly in July that boundaries cannot be changed before March 2027 because of the census, The Sootr reported, and the government has extended the commission's term to that date. Local body elections are also due after the census, so implementation may slip further, TOI noted.
That pushes any redrawing towards the 2028 Assembly election season, when district maps in the state have tended to change. Niwari was carved out before the 2018 polls, and Maihar and Pandhurna were created shortly before the 2023 vote.
The commission can only recommend. Which towns become districts, and when, will be decided by the state government.
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