Powers Of District Magistrate In India The District Magistrate or the Collector is the chief executive of a district. He is responsible for running the administration of the district smoothly and properly. In fact, the district is the principal administration in India. The activities of the district administration practically covers a wide range and touches almost at every level the loves and activities of the people. The main task of the district administration is as such to implement programs with the active co-operation and support of the people of the district. Thus the district administration has some special characteristics. Here the government comes into direct contact with the people and the problems that the district administration tries to solve are essentially local in their character. “The state government finds each district at its lowest level and its direct agency terminates there leaving the head of the district as its last agent and ‘man on the spot. Exceptions apart, the districts represent the maximum of the area in which they must work together. The district administration is field work as opposed to staff or secretarial duty. And at the collector level in the district all policies end and action begins.” The District Magistrate or the Collector is the pivot in the district administration. He is the main agent for making the necessary co-ordination of the official agencies functioning within the district. As such the function and responsibilities of the District Magistrate may be broadly classified under three general heads viz., the District Magistrate as the Collector, the District Magistrate as the Magistrate of the ruler of the district and the District Magistrate as the highest administrative officer in the district. As a Collector the District Magistrate is responsible for the collection of revenue from the district. It is also his responsibility to hear the appeals in revenue cases against the decisions taken by the Tahasildars and other subordinate revenue collectors in the district. Thus, as a revenue collector, he is to look after the collection of land revenue, maintenance of land records, land reforms, consolidation of holdings etc. Actually the revenue collection function of the collector includes revenue, excise and the government treasury. It covers the separate items. The first is the assessment and collection of land revenue. “The district apparatus for this purpose in the normal way consists of the Collector (D.M.), the sub-divisional officers (deputy collectors), the Tahasildars, and the naib-Tahasildars and at the village level the patwaries.” The irrigation departments consists the second group. Here the irrigation department generally makes out the “demand lists of irrigation dues” each season and sends it to the Collector or to the Tahasildars. Then the Collector with his revenue staff collects it. The third element is the income tax. Here also the assessment is made by the income tax officials who in fact are under the central government. They collect the income tax directly but they certify the arrears collection of income tax to the District Collector for recovery. The fourth element is agricultural income tax which is also collected under the order of the District Collector. The fifth element, the sales tax is also collected under the authority and responsibility of the District Collector especially for the collection of the arrears. The sixth element included—the court fees payable in connection with various judicial proceedings, such as the presentation of plaints, the issue of writs and other processes documents and the certified copies of proceedings. It also includes taxes leviable in the shape of revenue stamp on documents. The District Collector has good say in these activities. The seventh element of these revenue annals is the excise duties of different kinds. In the district, an officer of the district officer’s staff is designated as the district officer’s staff
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 13:24:44 +0000
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