Kerakat or Kirakat is a town and

nagar panchayat A nagar panchayat () or 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 12,00 ...

Jaunpur district Jaunpur district is a Districts of Uttar Pradesh, district in the Varanasi Division of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The district headquarters is the city of Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, Jaunpur which is situated on the banks of the Gomti River ...

of the Indian state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

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

Gomati River Gomati ( Kumaoni: गोमती) is a tributary of the Saryu River. The river originates in the higher reaches of Bhatkot northwest to the town of Baijnath in Uttarakhand, India. It joins Saryu at Bageshwar, which then proceeds towards Pan ...

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

Varanasi Division Varanasi division is one of the 18 administrative geographical units (i.e. division) of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Varanasi city is the administrative headquarters of the division. The division consists of 4 districts, i.e. ...

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

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, 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 introd ...

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, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

History

Kerakat was known as ''Kitagiri'' in

Gautam Buddha Gautam may refer to: *Gautama (name), a name of Sanskrit origin * Gautam (clan), a Rajput clan in India * Gautam (Nepali name), a surname *Gautam Ashram Gautam Ashram () was a gurukul of the ancient Indian philosopher Gautama. It is located at t ...

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

Demographics

As of the 2011 Census of India, 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 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-Ayod ...

Varanasi Junction Varanasi Junction railway station (station code: BSB), also known as Varanasi Cantt railway station, is the main railway station serving the city of Varanasi. The other key railway stations in the Varanasi Metro area are Banaras, Varanasi C ...

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 Benares, Banaras ) or 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 tradition of I ...

Azamgarh Azamgarh is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Azamgarh division, which consists of Ballia, Mau and Azamgarh districts. Azamgarh is situated on the bank of Tamsa River (Tons). It is located east of the ...

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. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...

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 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 Shastri, the ...

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

Azamgarh Airport Azamgarh Airport is a domestic 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 airstrip ca ...

Education

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

Notable people

Ravi Kishan Ravindra 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. He received a ''Sansad ...

, an actor in

Bhojpuri cinema Bhojpuri cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bhojpuri language widely spoken in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Its major production centres are Patna. Bhojpuri cinema has grown in rece ...

and

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

, 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