North 24 Parganas district

Pre-independence

The territory of Greater 24 Parganas were under the Satgaon (ancient Saptagram, now in Hoogly district) administration during the Mughal era and later it was included in Hoogly chakla (district under post-Mughal Nawabi rule) during the rule of Murshid Quli Khan. In 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, Nawab Mir Jafar conferred the Zamindari of 24 parganas and janglimahals (small administrative units) upon the British East India Company. These Parganas are (O'Mally, L.S.S. (1914) Bengal District Gazetteers: 24 Parganas. Page 44):

1. Akbarpur
2. Amirpur
3. Asimabad
4. Balia
5. Baridhati
6. Basandhari
7. Birati
8. Calcutta
9. Dakshin Sagar
10. Garh
11. Hathiagarh
12. Ikhtiarpur
13. Kharijuri
14. Khaspur
15. Maidanmal or Mednimall
16. Magura
17. Mayda
18. Manpur
19. Murnagacha
20. Paika
21. Pechakul
22. Satal
23. Shahnagar
24. Shahpur
25. Uttar Pargana

Since then, this entire territory is known as '24 Parganas'.

In 1751, the Company assigned John Zephaniah Holwell as zemindar of the District.^[4] In 1759, after the Bengali War of 1756–1757, the Company assigned it to Lord Clive as a personal Jaghir (zamindari) and after his death it again came under the direct authority of the company.

In 1793, during the rule of Lord Cornwallis, entire Sunderbans were in Twentyfour Parganas. In 1802, some parganas on the western banks of river Hoogly were included into it. These parganas were in Nadia earlier. In 1814, a separate collectorate was established in Twenty-four Parganas. In 1817, Falta and Baranagar and in 1820, some portions of Nadia's Balanda and Anwarpur were encompassed to it. In 1824, portions of Barasat, Khulna and Bakhargunge (now in Bangladesh) were also included to it. In 1824, the district headquarters was shifted from Kolkata to Baruipur, but in 1828, it was removed to Alipore. In 1834, the district was split into two districts – Alipore and Barasat, but later these were united again.

In 1905, some portion of this district around the Sunderbans was detached and linked to Khulna and Barisal. These parts remained in Bangladesh territories where Jessore's Bangaon was joined to Twentyfour Pargana after the 1947 partition.^{[citation needed]}

After Independence

In 1980, an administrative reform committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Ashok Mitra suggested splitting the district into two and as per the recommendation of the committee in 1983, on 1 March 1986, two new districts – North 24 Parganas (24 PGS (N)) and South 24 Parganas (24 PGS (S)) were created. The North 24 Parganas which was included in the Presidency division has been formed with five sub-divisions of the Greater 24 Parganas, namely Barasat Sadar (Headquarters), Barrackpore, Basirhat, Bangaon, and Bidhannagar (a satellite township of Kolkata, popularly known as Salt Lake).

On 1 August 2022, the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee announced to create two more districts named Ichamati district consisting of Bangaon subdivision and a yet unnamed district consisting of Basirhat subdivision by bifurcating the district for better development and smooth administration purpose.^[5]

Administrative subdivisions

The district comprises five subdivisions: Barrackpore, Barasat Sadar, Basirhat, Bangaon and Bidhannagar.

• Barrackpore Subdivision consists of 16 municipalities (Kanchrapara, Halisahar, Naihati, Bhatpara, Garulia, Barrackpore, North Barrackpur, New Barrackpur, Titagarh, Khardaha, Panihati, Kamarhati, Baranagar, Dum Dum, North Dumdum and South Dumdum (25 Wards)) and 2 community development blocks: Barrackpore I and Barrackpore II.
• Barasat Sadar Subdivision consists of 5 municipalities (Barasat, Habra, Ashoknagar Kalyangarh, Madhyamgram, and Gobardanga) and 7 community development blocks: Barasat I, Barasat II, Amdanga, Deganga, Habra I and Habra II
• Bongaon Subdivision, consists of Bangaon municipality and 3 community development blocks: Bagdah, Bangaon and Gaighata.
• Basirhat Subdivision consists of 3 municipalities (Basirhat, Baduria and Taki) and 10 community development blocks: Baduria, Basirhat I, Basirhat II, Haroa, Hasnabad, Hingalganj, Minakhan, Sandeshkhali I, Sandeshkhali II, Swarupnagar.^[7]
• Bidhannagar Subdivision consists of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, South Dum Dum Municipality (10 wards) and one community development block: Rajarhat.

Barasat is the district headquarters. There are 35 police stations, 22 development blocks, 27 municipalities, 200 gram panchayats and 1599 villages in this district.^[7][8]

Other than municipality area, each subdivision contains community development blocks which in turn are divided into rural areas and census towns. In total there are 48 urban units: 27 municipalities and 20 census towns and 1 cantonment board.^[8][9]

Universities

Colleges

Schools

Railways

The electrified suburban rail network of the ER is extensive and penetrates far and deep into the neighbouring districts of Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly etc.

The Circular Rail encircles the entire city of Kolkata, and also used to provide an offshoot to connect the Dum Dum Airport, but now it is limited up to Dum Dum Cantonment. Jessore Road and Biman Bandar railway stations are closed for the construction work of Noapara–Barasat metro corridor (Yellow Line).^[23]

Kolkata Metro is also a transport medium for parts of the district. Four stations of Blue Line are located here, Dum Dum metro station at Dum Dum, Baranagar metro station at Baranagar, Dakshineswar metro station at Dakshineswar and Noapara metro station at Noapara.^[24]

• 
  Kolkata Suburban EMU Train
• 
  Kolkata Metro's Noapara metro station at Noapara, Baranagar

Airports

The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (IATA code:CCU), which is at Dum Dum (previously known as Dum Dum Airport) in North 24 Parganas, is the only airport serving the city Kolkata. It operates both domestic and international flights. It is a gateway to North-East India, Bangkok, and Bangladesh. The number of people using the airport has consistently increased over the last few years.

Roadways

The road network is fairly well developed. Sparsed across by state-highways, it provides a convenient means of transport. NH 12 connects the district with northern and southern region of the state and its sub road NH 112 connects the district headquarter Barasat with the border town Bangaon and Petrapole, the largest land port of India.

Religion

More information Religion, Population (1941): 80–81 ...

Religion in present-day North 24 Parganas district^[a]

Religion	Population (1941)[31]: 80–81	Percentage (1941)	Population (2011)[30]	Percentage (2011)
Hinduism	927,418	57.09%	7,396,769	73.76%
Islam	648,920	39.95%	2,584,684	25.52%
Tribal religion	41,105	2.53%	2,930	0.03%
Others[b]	6,994	0.43%	69,398	0.69%
Total Population	1,624,437	100%	10,009,781	100%

Close

Hinduism is the main religion in the district, and especially dominates urban areas where they are nearly 90% of the population. Most Muslims are rural, and in the rural areas Hindus and Muslims are in equal proportions. In Bongaon and Sandeshkhali regions, Hindus, mainly descendants of refugees from present-day Bangladesh, dominate the rural population. But in the rest of the district, Muslims dominate the rural population.

Languages

According to the 2011 census, 88.91% of the population spoke Bengali, 7.69% Hindi and 2.28% Urdu as their first language.^[32]