Willing to make your career as a collector? Want to know educational qualification to become a collector? Read this article to know complete information about this and which subjects should you choose after 10th or 12th.
A collector is one of the most reputed posts in Central Government service. You might also be willing to become a collector. But do you know that who is a collector? A collector is a person appointed by the Central Government to handle various administrative tasks in the district for which he/she is appointed. A collector is the top most ranked government officer in a state. Though a collector is appointed by central govt., but he works under the supervision of state govt. Let’s read about the post of collector in detail.
What is the role of collector ?
Following are some of duties and responsibilities of a collector.
- He acts as the Head of Land and Revenue Administration, as the District Head of the Executive Magistracy, and as the Chief Information and Grievance Redressal Officer of his district.
- He is responsible for maintaining law and order, revenue administration and general administration in his district.
- He is responsible to supervise law and order.
- He also acts as an authority in special laws like Arms, Explosive and Cinematography Acts etc. in his District.
- He is responsible for various tasks like collection of revenue, taxation, etc.
- He acts as Officer-in-charge of Disaster Management and takes required steps in case of emergency conditions within his area.
- He also functions as Executive Magistrate and Chief Development Officer (CDO)/District Development Commissioner.
- He conducts elections for Parliament, State Legislature and Local Bodies.
- In short, a collector performs his duties in almost fields of his district- Information Technology, Rural Development, Human Resource Development, Licensing and Regulatory Authority, Economic Development, Food and Civil Supplies, etc.
How to make your career as a collector ?
A person must be eligible to be a collector. Here’s the criteria for this job.
- Age requirement: Minimum age limit is 21 years and maximum age limit is 30 years for the candidates of general category. Candidates of SC/ ST have age relaxation of 5 years and candidates of OBC have age relaxation of 3 years in upper age limit.
- Minimum education required: An applicant must be a graduate in any discipline from a recognized university/ institute. Final year students can also apply for the exam (read next point to know about exam) but they have to submit their degree/ pass certificate at a later stage.
- Competitive exam: You need to clear Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by UPSC. Union Public Service Commission conducts this exam every year for the recruitment to different civil services under Govt. of India, like Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS).There are three stages in this exam- Preliminary exam, Mains exam and personality test or interview. Preliminary exam (popularly known as the Civil Services Aptitude Test or CSAT) consists of two papers and is of 200 marks for each paper. Both papers consist of multiple choice objective type questions. Paper II is qualifying in nature. Mains exam consists of a written examination and an interview. The written exam consists of total 9 papers out of which 2 exams are qualifying in nature while rest of the 7 exams are ranking in nature. The written exam is of 1750 marks and Interview or personality test is of 275 marks, thus Civil Services Mains Examination consists of 2025 marks in total.Please note that exam qualifying in nature means that you need to secure minimum 33% marks in that exam so that you can be graded on the basis of another exam. Also, it means that it won’t be graded for eligibility at next level.
Which subjects should you choose after 10th or 12th ?
As stated before, you need to pass your graduation at least to be eligible to appear for CSAT and CSE to become a collector. But if you have the passion to make your career as a collector, then you should start preparing yourself as soon as you clear your matric or +2. Read books related to English, General Knowledge, Indian Law and Constitution, History, Disaster management, etc.
Not only this, you must also possess excellent administrative skills, leadership skills, good communication skills, interpersonal skills and sharpen your ability to take quick and accurate decisions.
