Overview of the Municipality

Kharar is a small town in Ghatal subdivision in the district of Midnapore. Kharar municipality was established in 1888. In 1884, according to section 8 of the then Bengal Municipality Act Kharar municipality had been established with Rayerdanga, Krishnapur, Udaygunge and Dalapatipur village under its jurisdiction. Initially Kharar was under Arambag sub division of Hooghly district. It came under Midnapur district in 1872. During that time Kharar had started growing as a town. Development of Kharar was mainly attributable to the growing brass metal industry in this locality. Later production of golden ornaments also developed here and goldsmiths took important role in development of the town. Due to the rapid development of these two industries population started increasing in this area and gradually there came the need of transforming it into a municipal area. With the recommendation of the then administrative unit of Hooghly district Kharar became the fifth municipality of Ghatal sub division. It is situated 15 Km north of Kharar and also 10 Km north of Ghatal. The town Kharar is well linked with its distict head quarter Medinipur, and also with Kolkata – the state capital, through a broad gauge railway line from Panskura (S.E. railway) as well as through state highway N.H. 6. As it is nearer to Kolkata and has close link with it has enough scope of future development activities.

In the beginning there were three wards and 15 commissioners in this newly born municipality. Among the commissioners 10 were elected and the government nominated 5. After 1918 municipal election Kharar got the right to elect its chairman from the commissioners. In the time of establishment the population of the locality was only 8558. Different municipal services were also insufficient for the citizens. But due to rapid growth and development of various cottage industry and metal industry it remained to be an area of interest to the neighbouring people. It was a centre of festivals, culture, business, and commerce to the people of adjacent villages.

The municipality is located at a distance of 30 km from the sub-divisional Head Quarter (Ghatal) and 75 km from the district Head quarter (Paschim Medinipur). It is also nearest to KamarPukur (Hoogly District) the birth place of Sri Ramkrishna Poramonsha Deb.