A District
Collector is the chief
administrative and revenue officer of an Indian district. The Collector is also
referred to as the District Magistrate, Deputy
Commissioner and, in some districts, as Deputy Development Commissioner. A
District Collector is a member of the Indian Administrative Service, and is
appointed by the State government.
History
Strict Administration in India is a legacy of the British
Raj. District Collectors were members of
the Indian Civil Service,
and were charged with supervising general administration in the district.
Warren
Hastings introduced the
office of the District Collector in 1772. Sir George Campbell,
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal from 1871-1874, intended “ to
render the heads of districts no longer the drudges of many departments and
masters of none, but in fact the general controlling authority over all
departments in each district."
The office of the Collector during the British Raj held
multiple responsibilities– as Collector,
he was the head of the revenue organization, charged with registration,
alteration, and partition of holdings; the settlement of disputes; the
management of indebted estates; loans to agriculturists, and famine relief. As District
Magistrate, he exercised general
supervision over the inferior courts and in particular, directed the police
work. The office was meant to achieve the "peculiar purpose" of
collecting revenue and of keeping the peace. The Superintendent of Police, Inspector General of Jails, the Surgeon General,
the Chief Conservator of Forests
and the Chief Engineer
had to inform the Collector of every activity in their Departments. Though
the Additional Commissioners of Income Tax are important officials of the district they do
not have to send a report to the collector as they work for the central
government and not the state governments.
Until the later part of the nineteenth century, no
native was eligible to become a District Collector. But with the introduction of open competitive
examinations for the Indian Civil Services, the office was opened to
natives. The district continued to be the unit of administration after
India gained independence in 1947. The role of the District
Collector remained largely
unchanged, except for separation of most judicial powers to judicial officers
of the district. Later, with the promulgation of the National
Extension Services and Community Development Programme by the Nehru government in 1952, the District
Collector was entrusted with the
additional responsibility of implementing the government's development programs
in the district.
Appointment
District
Collectors are appointed by
the State government, from among the pool of Indian
Administrative Service officers in the
state. The members of the Indian Administrative Service are either directly
recruited by the Union Public Service Commission or promoted from civil services of the State
government. The direct recruits are posted as Collectors in their twenties and
thirties whereas the promotees from state civil services generally occupy this
position in their fifties.
Duties
The District Collector is entrusted with a wide range
of duties in the jurisdiction of the district. An Indian district has between
11,054,131 to 7,948 residents, with an average of two million residents. The
area of land in a district also varies widely, from 45,652 sq. km (larger
than Denmark or Switzerland) to 9 sq. km.
While the actual extant of the responsibilities varies
in each State, they generally involve:
As Collector:
Ø
land assessment
Ø
land acquisition
Ø
collection of land revenue
Ø collection
of income tax dues, excise duties, irrigation dues etc.
Ø
distribution of agricultural loans
As District Magistrate:
Ø
maintenance of law and order
Ø
supervision of the police and jails
Ø
supervision of subordinate Executive
magistracy
Ø
hearing cases under the preventive section of
the Criminal Procedure Code
Ø
supervision of jails and certification of
execution of capital sentences
As Crisis Administrator
Ø
Disaster management during natural calamities
such as floods, famines or epidemics
Ø
Crisis management during riots or external
aggression
As Development Officer
Ø
Ex-officio chairman of the District Rural
Development Agency, which carries out various developmental activities
Ø
Chairman of the District Bankers Coordination
Committee
Ø
Head of the District Industries Centre
He
is assisted by the following officers for carrying out day to day work in
various fields:--
1. Additional
deputy commissioner
2. Assistant
commissioner (general)
3. Assistant
commissioner (grievances)
4. Executive
magistrate
5. District
revenue officer
6. District
transport officer
7. District
development and panchayat officer
8. Civil
defense officer
9. Urban ceiling officer
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