Hemtabad is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Raiganj subdivision of Uttar Dinajpur district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Historically the western frontier of ancient Pundravardhana kingdom, bordering ancient Anga of Mahabharat fame, the Dinajpur area remained somewhat obscure in the major empires that held sway over the region and beyond till the rise of the Dinajpur Raj during the Mughal period.

Subsequent to the Permanent Settlement in 1793, the semi-independent Dinajpur Raj was further broken down and some of its tracts were transferred to the neighbouring British districts of Purnea, Malda, Rajshahi and Bogra.

In 1947, the Radcliffe Line placed the Sadar and Thakurgaon subdivisions of Dinajpur district in East Pakistan.

[1] In order to restore territorial links between northern and southern parts of West Bengal which had been snapped during the partition of Bengal, and on the recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission a portion of the erstwhile Kishanganj subdivision comprising Goalpokhar, Islampur and Chopra thanas (police stations) and parts of Thakurganj thana, along with the adjacent parts of the erstwhile Gopalpur thana in Katihar subdivision were transferred from Purnea district in Bihar to West Bengal in 1956, and were formally incorporated into Raiganj subdivision in West Dinajpur.

Uttar Dinajpur district has a flat topography and slopes gently from north to south.

The main rivers are: Nagar, Mahananda, Kulik, Gamari, Chhiramati (Srimati) and Tangon.

The rivers have little water in the dry season but with heavy rains, during monsoon, overflow the banks.

The Kulik river flows through a portion of the boundary with Raiganj CD Block.

On the western side Uttar Dinajpur district has 227 km boundary with Bihar.

[11] According to the Human Development Report for Uttar Dinajpur district, population growth in the area that later became Uttar Dinajpur district was low in the pre-independence era and started picking up with the East Bengali refugees coming in from erstwhile East Pakistan.

[21] A study by North Bengal University has observed that “Immigrants from East Pakistan/Bangladesh have arrived in Uttar Dinajpur in almost equal numbers before and after 1971.” The Human Development Report opines, “The overall post-Partition impact on the rates of demographic growth has been particularly strong in all North Bengal districts.

Despite its smaller relative size, the region has received more migration in pro rata terms than the West Bengal districts lying south of the Ganga.”[21] As per the 2011 census, the total number of literates in Hemtabad CD Block was 82,874 (67.88% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 45,939 (73.61% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 36,935 (61.91% of the female population over 6 years).

In the 2011 census, Muslims numbered 71,225 and formed 50.14% of the population in Hemtabad CD Block.

It includes factory, mining, plantation, transport and office workers, those engaged in business and commerce, teachers, entertainment artistes and so on.

112 villages (98.25%) have telephones (including landlines, public call offices and mobile phones).

[33] “With its distinctive physiographic and agroclimatic features, the Dinajpur region has been a bread-basket area of Bengal for many centuries, growing multiple varieties of fine and coarse rice in vast quantities, along with major economic crops like jute.

[34] Hemtabad CD Block had 128 fertiliser depots, 23 seed stores and 25 fair price shops in 2013-14.

[35] “More than eleven hundred rural households across the district are engaged in traditional crafts based industries, among which dhokra, mat making, terracotta, village pottery and bamboo craft in the Goalpokhar-1 and Kaliaganj regions are notable.”[36] In 2012–13, Hemtabad CD Block had offices of 3 commercial banks and 2 gramin banks.

The fund, created by the Government of India, is designed to redress regional imbalances in development.

[35] The Barsoi-Radhikapur branch line passes through the Hemtabad CD Block and there is a station at Bamangram.

Hemtabad CD Block had 325 institutions for special and non-formal education with 13,484 students.

[44] The mid-day meal programme for rural school children was launched in 2005 in Uttar Dinajpur district.