As per Peterson’s District Gazeteer of 1910, the south-western extremity of the Sadgop kingdom of Gopbhum was held by two kinglings, probably merely cadets of the house of Gopbhum, at Bharatpur and Kankeswar or Kanksa. Kanksa is home to one of the oldest police stations in the area. In 1847, when Raniganj was constituted as a separate subdivision of Bardhaman district, it had three police stations under its jurisdiction - Raniganj, Kanksa and Neamatpur. The Rarheswar Shiva temple in Arra, within Kanksa police station area, is an old one of the "rekh deul" category. There also is a suggestion that there possibly was an ancient city at this place.
Geography
Location
The Asansol-Durgapur region is composed of undulating laterite soil. This area lies between two mighty rivers – the Damodar and the Ajay. They flow almost parallel to each other in the region – the average distance between the two rivers is around 30 km. The entire Durgapur-Kanksa-Faridpur-Ausgram area was densely forested even in more recent times. The influx of refugees from East Pakistan and their rehabilitation in the area, and irrigation facilities extended by Damodar Valley Corporation led to destruction of much of the forests in the area, but some still remain. Kanksa is located at.
Urbanisation
According to the 2011 census, 79.22% of the population of the Durgapur subdivision was urban and 20.78% was rural. The sole municipal corporation in the Durgapur subdivision is located at Durgapur and the subdivision has 38 census towns.
Gram panchayats
s under Kanksa Panchayat Samiti are: Bidbihar, Molandighi, Gopalpur, Bonkati, Tilakchandrapur, Kanksa and Amlajore.
Civic administration
Police station
Kanksa police station has jurisdiction over the Kanksa CD block. The area covered is 280 km2. In the police set up Kanksa PS is under the Subdivisional Police Officer of Bardhaman Sadar North subdivision.
According to the 2011 Census of India, Kanksa had a total population of 23,789 of which 12,406 were males and 11,383 were females. Population in the age range of 0-6 years was 2,577. The total number of literate persons in Kanksa was 17,992.
Infrastructure
According to the District Census Handbook 2011, Bardhaman, Kanksa covered an area of 8.66 km2. Among the civic amenities, it had 18 km roads, with both open and covered drains, the protected water-supply involved overhead tank, tap water from treated source, hand pump. It had 1,892 domestic electric connections. Among the medical facilities it had 1 charitable hospital/ nursing home, 5 medicine shops. Among the educational facilities it had were 12 primary schools, 3 middle schools, 3 secondary schools, 1 senior secondary school. Among the social, recreational, culturual facilities it had 1 cinema theatre, 1 auditorium/ community hall, 1 public library, 1 reading room. It had the branch offices of 3 nationalised banks and 1 co-operative bank.
Kanksa has six primary, one secondary and two higher secondary schools. Kanksa High School is a Bengali-medium coeducational institution established in 1942. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class XII. The school has 1 computer, a library with 3,000 books and a playground. Kanksa Girls’ High School is a Bengali-medium girls only institutin established in 1963. It has facilities for teaching from class V to class XII. The school has 2 computers, a library with 250 books and a playground.
