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Rajasthan Cabinet approves changes to end 2-child restriction for local polls
Officials said that the restriction was imposed in the early 1990s when population control was a pressing concern and the state’s fertility rate was 3.6
The Rajasthan Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, and the Rajasthan Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to scrap the three-decade-old restriction on people with more than two children from contesting panchayat and urban local body elections. The restriction was introduced during the then-chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s tenure around 30 years ago.
Deputy chief minister Prem Chand Bairwa, who addressed the media after the Cabinet meeting along with ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Jogaram Patel, said Sections 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, and Section 24 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 2009, would be amended to remove the disqualification clause related to having more than two children.
They said that the restriction was imposed in the early 1990s when population control was a pressing concern, and the state’s fertility rate was 3.6 between 1991 and 1994. The fertility rate has declined to around 2, they added.
Chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma-led state Cabinet also approved amending Section 24 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling to remove “leprosy” from the category of disqualifying diseases.
It cleared the formation of a new Revenue Intelligence and Economic Offences Directorate by restructuring the existing State Revenue Intelligence Directorate. Bairwa said the new body would strengthen financial discipline and crack down on economic crimes.
The directorate will probe offences such as real estate fraud, financial crimes linked to banks, insurance companies, and the stock market, multi-level marketing scams, fake bankruptcies, bogus placement agencies, fraudulent job or admission rackets, etc. It will address illegal encroachments or sale of government land, stamp and registration irregularities, shell companies, cooperative society scams, and tax evasion.
The Cabinet cleared the Rajasthan Industrial Park Promotion Policy, 2026, and the Rajasthan Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy University, Ajmer, Bill. Rajasthan currently has one Ayurveda university in Jodhpur.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot urged the government to look beyond “paper claims” and focus on ground realities, saying people are facing hardship due to delayed and discontinued public projects.
