North Dinajpur district

The district of Uttar Dinajpur (Bengali: উত্তর দিনাজপুর) (uttar meaning North) came into existence on 1992-04-01 after the bifurcation of erstwhile West Dinajpur District. The District lies between latitude 25°11' N to 26°49' N and longitude 87°49' E to 90°00' E occupying an area of 3142 km² enclosed by Bangladesh on the east, Bihar on the west, Darjeeling District and Jalpaiguri District on the north and Malda District and South Dinajpur District on the south. Uttar Dinajpur is well connected with the rest of the state through National Highways, State Highways and Railways. NH-31 and NH-34 pass through the heart of the district.

The regional topography is generally flat with a gentle southerly slope towards which the main rivers like Kulik, Nagar, Mahananda. The District forms a part of the basin lying between Rajmahal hills on the east. The older alluvium is estimated to be Pleistocene age. Uttar Dinajpur is bestowed with a very fertile soil. The soil is very rich in nature due to the alluvial deposition which helps to grow Paddy, Jute, Mesta and Sugarcane etc. Raiganj on the banks of the River Kulik is the District Headquarters where the "Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary", the second largest bird sanctuary in Asia, is situated.

In Uttar Dinajpur district, there are 2 sub-divisions, Raiganj and Islampur, 110 km apart from each other. There are 4 Municipalities, 9 Blocks and 99 Panchayats covering 1577 villages. The total population is nearly 25 lakh (2.5 million), comprising mainly of rural masses. Bengali is the main language but a sizeable number of Urdu and Hindi speaking people live in Islampur sub-division.

Subdivisions

The district comprises two subdivisions: Raiganj and Islampur. Raiganj consists of Raiganj municipality, Kaliaganj municipality and four community development blocs: Hemtabad, Itahar, Kaliganj and Raiganj. Islampur subdivision consists of Islampur municipality and five community development blocs: Chopra, Goalpokhar — I, Goalpokhar — II, Islampur and Karandighi.¹ Raiganj is the district headquarters. There are 9 police stations,² 9 development blocks, 4 municipalities, 98 gram panchayats and 1516 villages in this district.³¹

Other than municipality area, each subdivision contains community development blocs which in turn are divided into rural areas and census towns.⁴ In total there are 10 urban units: 4 municipalities and 2 census towns. Raiganj and Kasba form an urban agglomeration. Dalkhola was a census town in census 2001, but it was promoted to be a municipality in 2003.⁵

Raiganj subdivision

Islampur subdivision

Assembly constituencies

Impact of delimitation of constituencies

As per order of the Delimitation Commission in respect of the delimitation of constituencies in the West Bengal, the district will be divided into 9 assembly constituencies:⁷

Non-governmental organizations

Whereas there are many NGOs working the district, the most prominent are the Lions Club of Raiganj, the Social Welfare Institute and St. John's Ambulance Association. It was during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, the Diocese of Dumka, feeling the need of relief operations, specially for the immigrants, began the Social Welfare Institute in the heart of the town. People began to call this as "Caritas". Following the massive relief operations, SWI began to focus its attention on strengthening of the people of West Dinajpur district as it was then known. Fr. Yvo La Ferla, S.J., who was the founder-director of the organization, mobilized the young and the volunteers of Raiganj town to form the Lions Club and St. John's Ambulance, later also the Young Men Association. This is the beginning of the story of NGOs in one of the backward districts of West Bengal.

The "Bharat Sevashram Sangha", a prominent charitable, philanthropic organisation founded by the illustrious patriot saint of modern India Acharya Srimat Swami Pranavanandaji Maharaj in 1917 at Bajitpur (Now in Bangladesh, Madaripur District), has a big regional centre in Raigunj and afunctional one in Islampur. They are very active in flood relief work.Acharaya Swami Pranavananda was born in 1896 and left this world in 1941 at Ballygunge in Kolkata, Head Office of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha at 211, Rash Behai Avenue, Kolkata 19. The Sangha has branches all over the world including New Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, London, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Toronto, Guyana Katrhmandu, Dhaka etc.

References