Districts Of West Bengal
The Indian state of West Bengal borders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and Sikkim. The Himalayas lies in the north of the state and the Bay of Bengal is at the south. In between them, the river Ganges flows eastwards and its main distributary, the Hooghly River, flows south to reach the Bay of Bengal. The Siliguri Corridor, which connects North-East India with rest of the India, lies in the North Bengal region of the state. Geographically, West Bengal is divided into a variety of regions—Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, Terai and Doors region, North Bengal plains, Rarh region, Western plateau and high lands, coastal plains, Sunderbans and the Ganges Delta.
In 1947, when India gained independence, the state of West Bengal was formed with 14 districts, as per partition plan of the then Bengal province of British India. The former princely state Koch Bihar joined as a district in 1950, and the former French enclave Chandannagore joined as part of the Hooghly district in 1954. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956 led to addition of Purulia district to the state and to enlargement of West Dinajpur district. Later, larger districts such as West Dinajpur, 24 Parganas and Midnapore were bifurcated.
West Bengal is now divided into nineteen districts under three divisions. Districts are administered by District Magistrates, and divisions are administered by Divisional Commissioners. Kolkata, the capital of the state, constitutes the Kolkata district. Other districts are further divided into administrative units such as subdivisions and blocks, administered by SDO and BDO, respectively. The Panchayati Raj has a three-tier structure in the state. The atomic unit is called a Gram Panchayat, which is the Panchayat organization for a collection of villages. The block-level organizations are called Panchayat Samiti, and the district-level organizations are named Zilla Parishad.
Read more about Districts Of West Bengal: Geography, History, Administrative Structure, Alphabetical Listing
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