Cuttack district

Cuttack district is one of the 30 districts of Odisha state in India. It is located in the coastal part of the state and its administrative headquarters are located in the city of Cuttack. As of 2011 Census, after Ganjam, it is the second most populous district of Odisha, with a population of 2,624,470. The name is an anglicized form of Kataka or Katak meaning Fort – referring to the Barabati Fort. The district is bisected by the river Mahanadi and its numerous distributaries and occupies a large portion of the river's delta. It is bounded by the Angul, Dhenkanal, Nayagarh and Khurda districts to the west while its southern and eastern boundaries touch Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Jajpur districts.

History

The history of the district is the same as that of Odisha owing to the strategic location of Cuttack city. The city in some form or the other has been an administrative centre since the Kesari kings of the 10th century. The fort at Barabati continued to be the capital of the Mughals who started revenue settlement of Coastal Odisha – thus giving it the vernacular name of Mughalbandi. Occupied successively by the Nawab of Bengal and the Maratha Empire, it finally fell to the British. Simultaneously, a number of petty princely states existed along the north and south bank of the Mahanadi upstream from Cuttack. After the present Sadar subdivision of the district was conquered along with the rest of Coastal Odisha by the East India Company in 1803, a magistrate and judge were appointed for the newly conquered areas with headquarters at Puri which was later shifted to Cuttack city. Further reorganisation took place in 1828 and three districts of Balasore, Puri and Cuttack with headquarters at towns of the same name were constituted. Each district was headed by an officer known as the Collector and District Magistrate who was a member of the Indian Civil Service. The Commissioner of Orissa division with superintendence powers over these three districts as well as the associated princely states also had his headquarters at Cuttack.
The subdivision of Banki comprising the feudatory state of Banki and zamindari of Dampada was added to the district in 1840 after the Raja was deposed for murder. As of 1872, the district comprised around area with 1,494,784 inhabitants. The district reached its greatest extent after 1948 when the princely states of Narasinghpur, Baramba, Athagad and Tigiria were added to the district post their accession to India. Subdivisions like Gram Panchayats and Community Developments blocks were introduced in 1962. A small portion of the district adjoining Bhubaneswar was transferred to Puri district that year.
Before the division of the district in 1992, it was the largest in Odisha by population. It had no less than 42 blocks and six subdivisions with headquarters at Banki, Athagad, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada. The last three were split off to form separate districts that year.

Geography and climate

The district covers an area of 3,932 km². The geographical location of the district is 20,4625° N latitude and 85.8830° E longitude. The average annual precipitation over the district is about 1,440 mm, most of which occurs during south-west monsoon period. The temperature seems moderate for the area throughout the year except for the summer season, where the average maximum temperature is 41 °C. The average minimum temperature over the district is 10 °C.
The district is divided into two distinct geographic regions. The Sadar subdivision mostly consists of the alluvial delta formed by the River Mahanadi and its distributaries. The width of the delta stretches to about 60–75 kilometres from the coast. The land is mostly flat and is intersected by numerous channels, active and abandoned, of the Mahanadi system. Few isolated hillocks near Cuttack form the only break in the plain. The land is often waterlogged during the Monsoon and an elaborate system of canals, embankments and weirs is used for both flood control and irrigation. Paddy is the primary crop and is grown throughout the year. The villages are located on an artificial high ground and are usually surrounded by copses of banyan, mango and other large trees. Most villages have one or more tanks called pokharis that supply their fresh water needs.
The Athagad and Banki subdivisions consist of broken hill country on either side of the Mahanadi river. Most of the hills are of low height and present a rounded appearance reaching a maximum of around 2500 feet along the border with Hindol. Occasional fertile, narrow valleys formed by riverine action are also found – especially near Khurda district. Numerous small streams run down these hills to join the Mahanadi. Substantial forested tracts are still to be found in the Dampada block and Narasinghpur blocks while Athagad, Tigiria and Badamba blocks are largely agricultural. A thick layer of sandstone underlies these subdivisions while occasional laterite stone outcrops can be seen at many places.

Administration

The district is headed by a collector and district magistrate, usually from the Indian Administrative Service. The collector combines revenue collection functions with law and order responsibilities under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. He is also the lynchpin of development activities in the district and chairs numerous committees to oversee the same. In his day-to-day functions, he is assisted by two additional district magistrates who look after Revenue and General Administration. The district is divided into a total of 15 Tahsils each headed by a Tahsildar for land revenue purposes.
Development activities in the district under the Panchayati Raj Department are overseen by the Chief Development Officer. The Collector is the ex-officio CEO of this office. A total of 14 blocks under the Orissa Panchayat Samiti Act are operational in the district each headed by a Block Development Officer who reports directly to the CDO and the collector.
Policing is the responsibility of the Superintendent of Police or SP who is nominally under the District Magistrate but is independent in practice. Each block has one or more police stations headed by an Inspector or Sub Inspector in-charge. After the introduction of the Bhubaneswar–Cuttack Police Commissionerate, Magisterial powers in the urban area covered under it have been vested in the Commissioner of Police who exercises them through deputy and Assistant Commissioners of Police. The SP and senior officers of the Commissionerate are usually from the Indian Police Service.
The three subdivisions of Banki, Athagad and Sadar are each headed by a Sub Collector cum Sub Divisional Magistrate who exercises most of the powers of the Collector in his jurisdiction. His police counterpart is the Subdivisional Police Officer. The Sub Collector exercises both direct and indirect control over the Tahsils, Blocks and Police Stations in his jurisdiction.
The urban areas of Cuttack, Banki, Athagad and Choudwar are constituted as municipal bodies. Cuttack Municipal Corporation is usually headed by a senior Indian Administrative Service officer called the municipal commissioner who is independent from the collector in his day-to-day functioning. The other three urban bodies have executive officers who report to the project director, District Urban Development Authority and the Collector.
The district and Sessions Judge of Cuttack handles both civil and criminal cases. He is assisted by a number of additional district judges, civil judges and magistrates at the headquarters. At the subdivision level, the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate heads the criminal justice system.

Education

Cuttack has a rich educational landscape featuring schools run by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation as well as private entities. The city's schools provide courses in Bengali, Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, English, and Odia. While English-medium schools follow CBSE or ICSE curricula, Odia-medium schools have a connection with the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha.
The oldest school near Odisha, Ravenshaw Collegiate School, is situated in the city and boasts renowned alumni including Harekrushna Mahatab, Biju Patnaik, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Secondary Board High School, Ravenshaw Girls' High School, Stewart School, and Delhi Public School Kalinga were a few other renowned schools. Ranihat High School, Nua Bazar High School, Odisha Police High School, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Higher Studies and Research Matrubhaban, Christ Collegiate School, Kamalakanta Vidayapitha, Peary Mohan Academy, Badambadi New Colony High School, Buckley Girls School, Sri Aurobindo School Of New Thought, CRRI High School.
Cuttack's higher learning system, known as the 10+2+3/4 plan, provides for students to complete 10 years of formal schooling, two years of junior college, and possibly general or professional degree courses following that. Amongst the top colleges are Sailabala Women's College, the oldest in Odisha, Stewart Science College, and Ravenshaw College.
Additionally, Cuttack is linked to professional and technical schools such as Madhusudan Law College, which will soon be a university, Bhubananda Odisha School of Engineering, and the Institute of Management and Information Technology.
One of the first teacher training institutions in Odisha is the Radhanath Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, which was established in 1869. Urdu teacher training is offered by the Muslim Minority Govt Elementary Teacher Education Institution in Sheikh Bazar.

Transport

Cuttack's location places it at the centre of the road and railway network in Odisha. National Highway 16 connecting Kolkata and Chennai passes through the district. Major State Highways to Dhenkanal, Banki, Sambalpur and Puri take off from this road. Other important roads connect to Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara.
The main-line of the East Coast Railway connecting Howrah to Chennai Central has a station at Cuttack. Lines to Paradip and Sambalpur via Talcher take off from the district. Almost all trains passing through have a stop at Cuttack.
Waterways were formerly extremely important but are almost extinct now. Limited boating takes place for pleasure or fishing on the Mahanadi. The nearest airport, Biju Patnaik International Airport is about 30 km away from Cuttack city.