Solapur Guide

It is a city located in Western India, in the southern part of the state of Maharashtra and only 450 km. from the capital of Maharashtra, Mumbai. With a population of 3,849,543 it is actually a district and Solapur city is the district headquarters. The other two cities in this district are Madha and Pandharpur. With Solapur they make up the three revenue sub-divisions. There are 11 divisions of this district which are called Talukas. As many as 1144 revenue villages make up these talukas.
One Tahsildar is in charge of one Taluka. He is solely responsible for his respective Taluka; he maintains their law and order. He attends to the problems of the people and is directly in contact with them. The Tehsildar reports to the Sub-Divisional Officer or the S.D.O. In the hierarchy of the Government of Solapur the S.D.O. reports to the District Collector, or even to the Resident Deputy Collector who assists the District Collector from time to time. So, the highest in order is the District Collector or sometimes just known as the Collector.

At the District headquarters the District Collector is assisted by the Additional Collector. Working under him are the District Supply Officer, the Food grain Distribution Officer and they in turn have assistants to help them in their work.

The District Collector works closely with the Commissioner of Municipal Corporation and the Commissioner of Police to solve matters relating to law and order in the districts.

There are many departments which are the responsibility of the Deputy Collector and the Assistant Collector and they are mainly related to land development. The various departments are urban development, rural development, urban land-ceiling, resettlement, land acquisition, entertainment, municipal administration, district enquiry, district planning, and accounts.

Solapur is very well-connected by rail and road to the other major cities in Maharashtra like Mumbai and Pune. Within the city the Government has provided a good bus service, the Solapur Municipal Transportation and there are private auto-rickshaws which ply short distances. More than 4000 sq. km. of land is irrigated, and the city thrives from the crops of wheat, jowar and sugarcane as well as the big industrial plants.

Since Pandharpur is very big, there is a possibility that a separate Pandharpur District will be made in the near future to separate it from Solapur District.

The ruling party here is the National Congress Party. Solapur has recently elected its third lady mayor, which is unusual, in a line of 32 mayors.