Beed 城镇

Beed (Marathi pronunciation: [biːɖ]) is a city and headquarters of eponymous Beed district of Maharashtra state in India.

History

Beed is a historical city of possibly medieval origin. Its early history is obscure. Historians speculate, based on archaeological remains, that the city might have been founded by the Yadava rulers (1173–1317) of Devagiri (Daulatabad). Beed was later governed by the Nizams during the period of British India. The Annexation of Hyderabad Operation Polo, the code name of the Hyderabad "Police Action", was a military operation in September 1948 in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the State of Hyderabad and overthrew its Nizam, annexing the state into India. Beed remained in annexed Hyderabad state until 1956 when it was included in Bombay Presidency. On 1 May 1960 Maharashtra state was created on a linguistic basis, and Marathi Hindu & Muslim dominated Beed district became part of Maharashtra.

Foundation and name

The early history of Beed is unknown and there are contradictions in the historical accounts concerning its foundation and early history. According to legend, Beed was an inhabited place in the period of Pandavas and Kurus as Durgavati. Its name was subsequently changed to Balni. Champavati, who was sister of Vikramaditya, after captured and renamed it as Champavatinagar. After that the city fell to Chalukya, Rashtrkuta and Yadava dynasties before falling to Muslim rule.

Beed district consists of 11 talukas (tehsils)

Ambajogai

Ashti

Beed

Dharur

Georai

Kaij

Majalgaon

Parli Vaijnath

Patoda

Wadwani

Shirur Kasar

These talukas (tehsils) are administrative subdivisions that help manage the region's governance and services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure

Topography

Location

Beed is situated on the Deccan Plateau, on the banks of the Bensura river (also called Bendsura or Bindusara). Bensura is a sub-tributary of Godavari river originating in the hills of Balaghat range, about 30 km south-west of Beed near the village of Waghira. The river divides the city into smaller eastern and larger western parts. Balaghat Range stretches very close, up to 10 km south of the city resulting in undulating terrain in the eastern part of the city. Soil is coarse and rocky largely consisting of basalt. Thin layers of fertile black soil are also seen in the northern part of the city.

Bensura is a rapid and seasonal river. Bendsura Project (capacity 7.106 mm3) was constructed on the river in 1955 near the village Pāli, about 10 km south of the city. At some places in the city, the river is narrow and looks like a stream. The river has slop due to undulating terrain which contributes to violent floods when it rains heavy. Floods have repeatedly caused substantial loss of property and life in the history of the city, most recently on 23 July 1989 when a massive flooding of three habitations in the city caused a number of dead or missing and property losses of millions of rupees.

Climate

The city has Semi-arid, hot and dry climate consisting mainly of three seasons.

Demographics

At the time of the 2011 census, Beed Municipal Council has a population of 146,709. Males are 75,566 and females 71,143, for a sex ratio of 941 females per 1000 males. 13.60% of the population is under 6 years of age, and the child sex ratio is 854. Beed has a literacy rate of 89.34%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 9.51% and 0.90% of the population respectively.

Death rate is 3 which is lower than the national average of 8.2. Infant mortality rate is 71 per thousand live births which is much higher than the national average of 54.6 deaths for thousand live births. Maternal mortality rate however, is 1 which is extremely lower than the national average of 540.

Beed district has got the lowest sex ratio in Maharashtra State. Beed has the lowest male-female sex ratio in the age group of 0–6 years (801 as against 1000 male children) as per the 2011 census. Maharashtra's sex ratio in the age group of 0–6 years is 883 girls as against 1000 boys.

Even this small town is an evidence of India's religious and cultural diversity. 69.15 km2 of land is home for Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and Sikh communities. A calculated Hindu population in the town comprises around 54%. 12,307 Hindus were living in the town in 1901, which was 69.64% of the then population.

Culture

There are no public places in the city except cinema halls and a small, little maintained garden. Till few years back there were seven cinema halls, but now in 2018 only two are remaining; namely 'Asha' and 'Santoshimata'. Two parks were maintained until 1969 by the municipal council.

Economy

Beed has a growing economy with a rapid growth. In 1997, Sarma committee listed Beed as one of the 100 most rapid growing districts in India. After this listing the government of India and the government of Maharashtra specified Beed town as 'D' zone and declared tax holiday and concessions to lure the investors in the district. Without proper arrangement of water supply and transport facility, this declaration resulted nothing. Economic backwardness is attributed to the lack of natural resources, frequent droughts, lack of good transport facilities and corruption. Economy entirely depends on monsoon dependent agriculture, service sector and small businesses. Beed is one of the poorest districts of Maharashtra (in the bottom 10 in 2019-2022) with Per capita GDP of Rs 128,660 (about $1812) which was much lower than the Maharashtra State average GDP Rs 229,488 (about $3232) in 2019-2020.

Health

Beed was in the international news in August 1994 for the outbreak of Bubonic Plague. To some researchers, though, the disease detected here resembled Plague but could not be substantiated as per WHO criteria.

Media and communication

More than a dozen Marathi and two Urdu dailys are published from the city. Beed Reporter (newspaper), Champavati Patra, Lok Prashna, Lokasha, Parshv Bhumi and Zunjar Neta are major Marathi dailies.alhilal times one and only Urdu news paper daily published Local and regional news, crime stories and articles on local issues and politics are common features of the dailies. Marathi, Urdu, Hindi and English dailies including national dailies publishing from different cities of India also have consumers in city. No magazines are published in the city, but all the major national magazines do have readers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a state owned telephone service provider, has more than 15,000 customers. It has also introduced broadband internet lines.

Some enthusiasts have started a local cable channel ‘Beed News’. It provides local news coverage and plays movies rest of the time.

All India Radio Beed, at FM 102.9 MHz, broadcasts news, film and folk music, programmes of Vividh Bharti and programmes based on agriculture and health education.

Issues and challenges in the 21st century

Beed district as a whole —

Population below poverty line = 32.4%

Sex ratio = 912 (rural) ♀/♂

Estimated coverage of safe drinking water (habitations) = 66.1%

Villages not connected by paved roads = 52.82%

Beed has a long history as a neglected and backward area. Industrial and economic backwardness, lack of good transport facility, electricity and literacy were the issues in the 1960s and they are the same even today. Many elections have been fought with the issue of railway line facility. In the recent times the list of issues has gone up with a shortage of drinking water supply and electricity, frequent droughts, failing crops and suicide of farmers, unemployment, corruption and increasing crimes. Beed also records highest power theft in Maharashtra. Nearly 60% power supplied to the district is stolen before it can reach to the consumers who pay for it. Further, unpaid electricity bills runs to almost Rupees 4540 million (about $113 M) .

The district ranks 143rd in literacy in India based on IndianNgos.com research and analysis of 586 districts throughout India. On Human Development Index (HDI), using UNDP method, Beed ranks 18th out of 30 districts in the State of Maharashtra, with 0.47 HDI. It is 7th poorest district in the state with Human Poverty Index (HPI) of 21.21.

Historical buildings

Beed is home to several historical buildings, some of the noteworthy are:

The Kanakaleshwar Temple which is one of old temples in beed. It is a temple of Lord Shiva. It is surrounded by water from all sides.

The Khandoba temple is situated on the eastern hills. Built in Hemadpanti style. Two symmetrical, octagonal dīpmal (tower of light) rising 21.33 meters (70 ft) are standing in front of the temple. Towers have carved figures of humans and animals, now most of them defaced. There are two stories about the construction of this temple. One says that it was built by Sultanji Nimbalkar a Jagirdar of Nizam era. The other says that it was built by Mahadji Scindia. Tārīkh-e-Bīr (History of Beed) mentions it with Nimbalkar.

The Jama Masjid (Grand Mosque) is a Masjid situated in the centre of the city at Quila (fort) and is one of the largest Masjids of Beed city. It was built during the period of Mughal emperor Jahāngīr (1605–27) by his official in Beed Jān Sipār Khan