Karimganj district
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Karimganj District is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Karimganj.
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[edit] Geography
The district occupies an area of 1809 km². It is bounded on the northeast by Cachar District, on the east by Hailakandi District, on the south by Mizoram state, on the southwest by Tripura state, and on the west and northwest by Bangladesh. Karimganj Town The administrative headquarter and main town of the district also bears the same name, that is, Karimganj. Location Karimganj town is located on the northern fringe of the district adjoining Bangladesh, by the river Kushiara. Its distance from Guwahati - the state capital of Assam - is approximately 330 km by road and about 350 km by rail. Distance of other important places are : Silchar - 55 km, Shillong - 220 km, Agartala - 250 km. Communication Karimganj town has communication links with both rail and road with the rest of India. Karimganj town is a railway junction and meter gauge lines connecting Tripura with Assam pass through this station. The most popular mode of passenger transport, however, is by road. A good number of buses - mostly night services - ply between Karimganj and Guwahati daily. Direct long distance bus services are also available to Shillong, Agartala, Aizawl and so on. Communication with Silchar, Badarpur, Patherkandi and other nearby places is also mainly dependent on road transport, with services by all sorts of light and heavy vehicles available a frequent intervals. The nearest airport is Kumbhirgram (85 km) near Silchar - the headquarter of the adjacent district of Cachar. Karimganj town is also an important river port and has seasonal cargo and freight transport link with Kolkata through river ways via Bangladesh. Geography Flanked on two sides by the rivers Kushiyara and Longai, Karimganj town is located just on the Bangladesh border with the river Kushiara flowing in between. One prominent feature of the place is a long and winding canal called Noti Khal meandering across the town. Earlier, it used to be a connecting river way between Kushiara and Longai facilitating river communication and also balancing of water-levels between the two rivers. Now, however, this canal has been blocked at several places through embankments and land-fills to pave way for road transport and construction works.
[edit] History
In 1878, the British administration designated Karimganj town as the headquarters of the newly created sub-division of Karimganj. Before the Partition of India in 1947, Karimganj District was a sub-division of greater Sylhet District. The estate of the erstwhile Zamindars of Hasanpur, in Badarpur is also situated in Karimganj. After Partition, most of Sylhet District joined East Pakistan, which eventually became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Since 1947 Karimganj town continued to be the headquarters of a truncated Karimganj sub-division attached to the Cachar district of Assam.
In 1983, this town was designated as the district headquarters of the newly created Karimganj District.
[edit] Trade and Commerce
Karimganj town is an important centre of trade and commerce in the North East India. Its river port, with elaborate infra-structures like cargo-terminal, jetty, warehouses etc., is capable of handling large volumes of cargoes carried by steamers plying through river ways via Bangladesh. Karimganj is also a borders trade centre and import-export business worth crores of rupees is carried out through the custom trade point at Kalibari Ghat in the town.
[edit] Demography
The district has a population of 1,003,678 (as of 2001). The district's litaracy rate is 55.78%. Muslims form a slight majority in the district, at 52% of the population, with Hindus comprising 47% according to the 2001 Indian census.
Karimganj is one of several districts in Assam where Bengali is spoken by the majority of the population, as also in some other districts such as Cachar, Barpeta, Halaikandi, Dhubri and Goalpara.
[edit] Administration
Karimganj District has one sub-division. The district has 5 tehsils or development circles (Karimganj, Badarpur, Nilambazar, Patherkandi and Ramkrishna Nagar), two urban areas (Karimganj and Badarpur) 3 towns (Karimganj, Badarpur, and Badarpur Railway Town), 7 community development blocks (North Karimganj, South Karimganj, Badarpur, Patherkandi, Ramkrishna Nagar, Dullavcherra and Lowairpoa), 5 police stations (Karimganj, Badarpur, Ramkrishna Nagar, Patharkandi, Ratabari), 96 gram panchayats, and seven anchalik panchayats.
[edit] External links
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