Municipal Poll: A brief look at Karimnagar's history

Karimnagar: The Karimnagar town, which was earlier a municipality, gradually developed into a major city and later got transformed into a corporation. It got recognition at the national level for being included in the Smart Cities' list. The city got named after Subedar Syed Kareemuddin of Elagandula Fort, who served the region during the reign of Nizam rulers. People believe that in part of the region flourished large number of elephant population. Thus, 'Kari' of Karimnagar means elephants. The city is also called as Sabbinadu.

After Hyderabad and Warangal cities, Karimnagar is growing at a pretty fast pace in terms of development. After the bifurcation of districts, Karimnagar city became a major centre for administration for the other three new districts Peddapalli, Rajanna Sircilla and Jagtial.

The Karimnagar city occupied fifth place in the Smart Cities' list across the country. The city is located on the shore of the Manair river which is a tributary of Godavari. From 1991 to 2011, the population has recorded a growth rate of 45.46 percentage.

The city is a major attraction and centre for education and health sectors in North Telangana next to Warangal. In 1987, it was established as Grade-I municipality and later got special grade in 1991 and in 2005 it has formed into corporation. Former Minister and senior leader of Congress M Satyanarayana Reddy took special initiation to upgrade Karimnagar municipality into corporation during the reign of the Congress government. The 34 wards, which are present in the municipality, were divided into 50 divisions in the corporation.

In 2019, with the merger of eight villages present on the outskirts of Karimnagar city, it has emerged into a major corporation with 60 divisions at present. As per 2011 population census, the population of Karimnagar city is 2,61,185 members and with the merger of eight villages it has increased to more than 3 lakhs.

The Hindu population is 77.10 percent, Muslims population 20.71 percent, Christians population 1.30 percent, Sikhs population is 0.37 percent, Buddhists is 0.02 percent and Jains population is about 0.02 percent. The total literacy rate of people present under Karimnagar municipal Corporation is about 84.06 percent.