# Degana

Degana is a town municipality and headquarter to Sub-Division and Tehsil located in Nagaur district of Rajasthan, India.
Degana Railway Junction was made at a place situated equidistant from 3 nearby villages in the pre-independence era on the Jaipur-Jodhpur railway track for having a railway node for nearby Tungsten mine & also for better operational control as there in a long section of 40 km without any station in-between. With the passage of time, a Town came into being by drawing more and more dwellers and houses in next 50 years nearer to the railway station due to the obvious advantage of Rail connectivity to more significant city centers like Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner. As during those 50 years, the Road connectivity & Bus services were extremely poor in that region.
The city now has headquarters for Sub-division. Degana is 44 km From Makrana Railway station and 15 km from Gachhipura Railway station.

## Demography

As of 2011 India census, Degana had a population of 34,315. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Degana has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%, male literacy is 75% and female literacy is 51%.

## Panchayati Raj movement

Nagaur district had the oldest history of Panchyati Raj Institution in independent India as they were inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru on October 2, 1959. And Degana being the first among few Panchayats which had elections. Degana was then part of a very large but single Gram Panchayat of 19 villages. During the first Panchayat elections held sometime in 1954, area of the present town then forming part of Chandaroon Gram Panchayat elected a very young & compassionate man Sh. Kana Ram Jajunda, its first Sarpanch.
Jajunda had a long political & social influence over the people of this area, ever since until his demise on 29 August 2007. During 1996-2007, for 12 years Kana Ram Jajunda did lot of organizing work to spread the message & vision of his political ideology since he joined Bharatiya Janata Party in 1996.
BJP had hardly any historical presence anywhere in Nagaur district except Nawan. It required continuous & untiring organizational efforts from a man who had direct appeal with the people. And Jajunda became instrumental in being the bridge between the party and the people of this constituency.
In 1996, BJP recorded its first victory on Nagaur MP seat & then grew from strength to strength. The long & untiring efforts of this man in who was already in his seventh decade of life, brought laurels to the party in 2003 in form of 9 out of 10 MLA constituencies won by BJP in Vidhan Sabha elections 2003. The only exception remained as Degana constituency where Kana Ram Jajunda himself did not contest elections due to health issues even though party asked him his own choice before offering the ticket to others.
However the organizational strengthening of BJP at grassroot level carried-out by Sh. Kana Ram Jajunda during last 12 years paved way to triumph of BJP in Degana for the first time though by a narrow margin in next election in 2008.
The man fondly called “Kanji” always carried his political life with serenity & compassion. People of the area still remember him with deep affection & love as one of the last few good men in politics.

## Mineral

Wolfram (Wolframite) deposits are found in Renwat Hill at Degana. In this mineral the tungstate of iron and manganese occurs, in the veins and lodes of granite and philites. A reserve of the order of 3,400 tones has been established. Until 1994 Hindustan Zinc (Vedanta Group) was mining here in collaboration with government of Rajasthan, but as the depth of mineral is now very deep it is not that economical to mine mineral from this reservoir so they decided to stop mining for a certain time and started to import.In 2023 it is reported Lithium has been discovered in this area reportedly more than found in Jammu and Kashmir.

## Religious sites

The village has the temples of Ambe Mata mandir soni bhawan, Shitala Mata, Karni Mata, Chaumunda Mata, Charbhuja, Deonarayan, Shree Venkatesh Satyanarayan Temple, Temple was inaugurated on 13 May 1994 to fulfill the dream of Late Jainarayanji Karwa By his son Shri Sriniwasji Karwa. The idols are Lord Venkatesh, Lord Satyanarayan, Goddess Laxmi and Lord Hanunman. Main functions are on the Anniversary of Temple, Shiv Mandir, Gaytari Mandir, Veer Teja ji Mandir, Dharmshala hanuman mandir etc. There is an annual cattle-fair in village from Rajathani month Asoja Krishna 1 to 10 Dashahara. Village also has got three Mosques, One Eidgaah for Muslims. Also Muslim Dargaah (Kasnau Baba - Ilahibaksh baba).

## Geography

Degana is located at 26°53′42″N 74°19′20″E﻿ / ﻿26.895052°N 74.322166°E﻿ / 26.895052; 74.322166. It has an average elevation of 353 metres (1161 ft).

## Education

There is a Govt. Senior Secondary School with Science, Commerce and Arts faculties situated at Degana-Chandaroon Road. School was developed by Shri Bhanwar Lal Karwa, Chandarun and Hon'ble Citizens of Degana Junction and Chandaroon Village.
Degana city has Girls school up to Senior classes and Girls school attached with Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University for ARTS Subject situated at Sadar Bazar, Deagna Junction.
Some Schools of Degana Region: Gayatri bal Nekeyan school
* Dayanand bal niketan Sr. Sec. school
* Veer teja school
* Vivekanand sr school
* Blue rose school
* Dayanand public school,Jaola (English medium school)
* Mayur school degana
* Rana International School, Ajmer Road, Degana(English Medium)
College & defence academy in degana
* Govt college degana
* Dayanand college & Coaching degana
* Dayanand defense academy , degana
* Marwar college, nagaur fatak, degana
* Sharada Mahavidyalaya offering science and Arts course.
* JaiShree College is a private degree college

## Transport

Degana is a town populated around a railway junction on Jaipur-Jodhpur Broad-gauge line of North-Westorn Railway. Thence it has good connectivity to Jaipur (165 km), Jodhpur(149 km), Delhi (473 km) and Bikaner (218 km) through the railway network. Its location is Latitude 26° 53' 45" N and Longitude 74° 19' 15" E.
Another railway line from Degana Junction to Ratangarh now upgraded to Broad-gauge has also elevated the importance of this town Station. This line runs through Deedwana, Ladnun, Sujangarh and joins the Bikaner-Delhi Railway line at Ratangarh. Direct trains are available on a daily and weekly basis to Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Kota, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Bhopal, Nagpur, Varanasi, Puri and Kolkata.
Degana is also connected to nearby towns by 1 National Highway, 2 State Highways and many less-maintained MDR (Major District Roads) but "sadly" with negligible presence of State Transport services on this network. The city falls on midway on the State Highway from Ajmer to Nagaur SH-60 and another State Highway Ajmer to Deedwana SH-59. Recently a new National Highway Link NH-65A is constructed through this town. It is an alternate route of existing NH-65 [Pali to Ambala]. The new Link NH-65A will divert from Main NH-65 at Nimbi Jodha near Ladnun and run through Banthari, Khatu, Sanju, Langod, Degana, Idwa etc. It will be a much shorter route towards Pali for all traffic from Haryana.
Private Buses runs from Degana to Ajmer, Nagaur, Deedwana, Merta, Makrana, Parbatsar and Jodhpur but with very unpleasant service and an oligopolistic system of bus operators running on approx hourly basis connecting most of the villages of this Sub-division.