Kerakat or Kirakat is a town and

nagar panchayat A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,000 ...

Jaunpur district Jaunpur district is a district in the Varanasi Division of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The district headquarters is Jaunpur which is situated on the banks of the Gomti River. It is located 228 km southeast of the state capital Luck ...

of the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

with a population of approximately 13,500. It is situated near the

Gomati River Gomati, which means, among other things, "full of water", may refer to: Geography * Gomati district, a district of Tripura state, India * Gomati monastery, a monastery in Khotan, Turkistan, see Buddhism in Khotan * Gomati Lake, a lake in Vadtal, du ...

, which helps the land around the town stay very fertile. Kerakat or Kirakat forms a part of

Varanasi Division Varanasi division is an administrative geographical unit of Uttar Pradesh state of India. Varanasi is the administrative headquarters of the division. Currently (2018), the division consists of districts of Varanasi, Chandauli, Ghazipur, and ...

. It is located 30 km east of the city of Jaunpur and 279 km from

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, the capital of

. The town's

Postal Index Number A Postal Index Number (PIN; sometimes redundantly a PIN code) refers to a six-digit code in the Indian postal code system used by India Post. On 15 August 2022, the PIN system celebrated its 50th anniversary. History The PIN system was intro ...

is 222142 and it has a postal head office, as well as a police station. It is also a

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

and

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

History

Kerakat was known as ''Kitagiri'' in

Gautam Buddha Gautama, Gautam or Gotama may refer to: Ancient sages and philosophers * Akṣapāda Gautama, a Hindu sage and founder of the Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy: see Nyāya Sūtras * Indrabhuti Gautama, chief disciple of Mahavira * Gautama Buddha, t ...

's time. According to ''Kitagiri Sutta'', ''Majjim Nikaya'' of ''Suttapitaka'', .

Demographics

As of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Kerakat nagar panchayat had a population of 13,525, of which males were 6,987 and females 6,538. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 1,804. The total number of literates in Kerakat was 9,475, which constituted 70.1% of the population with male literacy was 75.2%, and female literacy is 64.6%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Kerakat was 80.8%, of which male literacy rate was 87.2% and female literacy rate was 74.1%. The

Scheduled Castes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

population was 1,835. Kerakat had 1924 households in 2011.

Administration

The town is a part of Machhlishahr constituency for national elections and is Kerakat (Vidhan Sabha constituency) (itself a constituency) for state elections.

Places of interest

* Adi Mata Kali Temple, Kerakat. Built in 1867. * Gomateshwar Mahadev Temple, Kerakat

Transportation

Rail

Kirakat railway station is a small railway station which belongs to the North Eastern Railway. Kerakat railway station is one of the railway station on the Aunrihar-Kerakat-Jaunpur Line section. The station is situated 0.7 kilometres (0.43 mi) north side from Kerakat Main Market. The station falls under the administration of Varanasi division, North Eastern Railway zone. The station Code is KCT. Many passenger trains, including expresses, stop at the station. Neighbourhood stations are Dobhi and Gangauli. The closest major station are

Jaunpur Junction Railway Station Jaunpur Junction (station code JNU), also known as Bhandariya railway station is a railway station in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. The station is part of the Northern Railway Lucknow Division and the Varanasi–Lucknow line via Jaunpur-Fai ...

, Varanasi Junction and Aunrihar Junction.

Road

Driving distance from Kerakat to the District headquarters Jaunpur is 30 km. Kerakat is also well connected by road to

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, Azamgarh,

Ghazipur Ghazipur is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. The city of Ghazipur also constitute ...

and other cities of

. A 4-lane highway has been proposed linking Varanasi to Ayodhya which will pass through Kerakat and Shahganj tehsil of Jaunpur

Air

The closest major airport to Kerakat is

Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport is an international airport serving Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at Babatpur, northwest of Varanasi. Formerly known as Varanasi Airport, it was officially renamed after Lal Bahadur ...

at Varanasi, 31 km by road. Another nearby airport is

Azamgarh Airport Azamgarh Airport is an underconstruction airport at Manduri Village outside of Azamgarh city, near Kuan Devchand Patti, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is being developed by upgrade of the existing government airstrip. The existing ai ...

Education

* Shri Ganesh Rai Post Graduate College (SGRPGC) * Public Inter College, Kerakat

Notable people

Ravi Kishan Ravi Kishan Shukla (; born 17 July 1969), popularly known as Ravi Kishan, is an Indian actor, politician, film producer and television personality. He currently serves as Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur. His film works are predo ...

, an actor in

Bhojpuri cinema Bhojpuri cinema is an Indian film industry of Bhojpuri-language motion pictures. It is based in western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh with major production centres in Lucknow and Patna. Bhojpuri cinema is a major part of Bihari cinema. The f ...

and

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, is from Kerakat. He has also worked in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujrati, English and other language films.

References

External links

Data from the 2001 Census

City Population : Uttar Pradesh
{{Jaunpur district Cities and towns in Jaunpur district