INTRODUCTION: ^ "" District has been the basic unit of administration in India since the times of Manu. The pattern of administration offered by Mauryas was highly centralised. During the period of Mughals, the revenue administration was separated from the general administration. The present Institution of the Collector has been directly derived from the Company administration, dating back to 1772. The Indian Council's Act of 1861, tenancy laws and the thr«e codes - the Penal Code, The Criminal Procedure Code, and the Civil Procedure Code cxijrtalled the executive and discretionary authority of the District Officer. But, he continued to be the chief agent of government in his district. With the passage of time the duties of the District Officer and methods of performing them have undergone a gr«at change. Towards 1919, the Montagu-Chelmsford Report proposed that the District Officer had a dual capacity - as a Collector, he was head of the revenue organisation, and as a Magistrate, he exercised general sipervlsion over the inferior courts and looked after some specific police work.
By 1939, with Congress Government, the emphasis had changed; it paid more attention to the programmes of rurel ipliftment, cooperative banks and village panchayats. Now his first concern was reconstruction and development of rural areas. After attainment of Independence/some structural, functional and organisational changes occured in the district administration. The aims behind these changes were not to reject completely colonial system of administration but to meet the requirements of newly elected government in order to realise, the hope and aspiration of the people and ^eed up or rebuild shattered economy of the country. The office of the District Officer has also changed fundamentally in terms of its prestige and powers. In a predominently agrarian country like India, the district administration is the actual government in action for the overvrfielming majority of the people. The district administration is basically revenue administration. The Collector is in direct charge of land revenue and its collection. The land reforms like Zamindari abolition, tenancy reform, ceiling on land holdings and consolidation of land holdings have imposed additional burden on the District Collector. Instead of dealing with
a few intermediaries, responsible for the payment of land revenue, he has now to deal with hundreds or thousands of cultivators in connection with land revenue, canal dues, taccavi loans and many other such things. But if we seriously examine entire revenue machinery of the district, we will find that the main structure as well as methods of the administration are more or less the same as they were before independence. As a Magistrate the District Officer has to maintain law and order and sipervises over magisterial courts. His later function has been affected in those States v^ere the system of separation of Judicial and executive functions has been introduced. The District Magistrate maintains law and order with the assistance of the District Police and a number of other agencies. Here he occasionally comes in conflict with the S. S.P. of the district. The District Officer has been primarily the field agent of the government and symbolises local administration in the district. The acceptance of the scheme of democratic decentralisation by States was bound to have a far-reaching effect \xpon district administration. In order
to decide actual position of the District Officer in PRIs, various deliberations were held and two views were finallyemerged. One was that it was wrong and undemocratic to make the District Officer chairman of the Zila Parishad, it was equally wrong and ill-advised to keep him outside the Panchayati Raj system. But,/the Panchayati Raj Act of 1993, which introduces the farreaching changes in the Panchayati Raj System and the growing quantum of development programmes, the question of the role of District Officer has assumed new dimension. The execution of a plan, either Five Year Plan or rural transformation programmes, is ultimately the responsibility of the district administration. Now eniphasis in relation to the responsibilities of the D.M. is shifting away from law and order and regulatory functions to development and coordination. An idea to abolish the office of the District Officer or to make him the chief executive of the Zila Parishad did not gathered enough svpport in its favour. There are psychological reasons as well as practical difficulties in adopting this idea. The present role of the District Officer in Uttar Pradesh vis-a-vis development administration can hardly be
said to be different from rest of the country, except Maharashtra, Gujarat & Andhra Pradesh. According to Adhiniyam, 1961, the Zila Parishad in Uttar Pradesh was given both sxpervisory and some executive functions. The District Officer is entitled to attend the meetings of Zila Parishad and participate in discussion without any voting right. The various development schemes have increased the woi* load over the DLstrict Officer. In order to make development meaningful and effective a separate department of development was created and all work relating to it was referred to the AIM (Planning) vtho was renamed as Chief Development Officer. He assists the District Officer in development work of the district. The object of the present study is to analyse the role of the District Officer in his different capacities with special reference to Aligarh district. ^ PuiTPOse and Significance* The main purpose of the study is to analyse the responsibilities of the District Officer in general and Aligarh District in particular with a view to make an addition in the existing literature which may form the
foundation for further theoretical and empirical research. More specifically the study aims att 1. to examine proliferation of institution of the District Magistrate through different stages and deduction and induction of various powers from his position. >^ 2. to study role of the Collector in revenue administration and importance of his revenue collection work in the light of various land reforms. 3. to evaluate the impact of delegation of powers & duties of the District Magistrate to the newly created post of the AIMs. 4. to find out the problems of coordination and cooperation among different departments of the district. 5. to study the role of the District Magistrate in maintaining law and order and the pressures which restricts him from performing this duty effectively.
6. to assess the effects of unnecessary dichotomy of sipremacy between the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police. 7. to study the actual position of the District Officer in development administration of the district. 8. to study the factors responsible for the politiclsation of the district administration and highlight its serious consequences adversely affecting the rapid development process. 9. to find out reasons responsible for losing faith and confidence of people in administration specially in the present scenario flnd in the light of the above study. 10. to make some concrete and viable suggestions for making the role of the District Officer more effective and meaningfial. Research Methodology: The Aligarh District has been purposefully selected for the intensive study and survey because of its historical importance, ~ size/ -6uo (wuj o^d-z^r <p-*^i>{a^^a.^^ UL-
8 In course of study both primary and secondary data have been used for completing this presentation. During the survey personal contacts and enquiries were made with the heads of different departments as well as officials of various ranks in the hierarchy of the district. Their suggestions were sought to bring coordination, override unnecessary confrontation and confusion, bring idea of mutual understanding rather than svpremacy and realise smooth functioning of the district administration for efficient and effective implementation of the policies. The utility of revenue function of the Collector has been studied in the context of declining revenue because of small land holdings as well as information was gathered from the field agencies of revenue machinery. The relevant books and Journals were carefully studied for depicting correct position of the Collector. Apart from this, sources like survey reports of Panchayati Raj Institutions, district census, district gazetteers, reports of distribution of business among different officials of the distirict, revenue manuals, reports of the government of India,etc. were studied for the purpose of cross-checking. In order to highlight declining role of the District Magistrate in maintaining law and order, the role
of police as well as armed forcesi annual progress reports of the district police, papers of delegation of powers, expansion of police organisation, etc. were extensively used. In order to depict correct position of the DLstrict Officer in development administration of the district, his role in Zila Pari shad and District Development Board was carefully studied, ^art from this, to examine the progress of development in the district, the woriting of IRDP and its impact over the people was thoroughly studied and information was collected through informal discussions with benefeciaries getting help under this development programme. The discussions were arranged individually as well as in groips. This method was found very useful for collecting the correct information. Scheme of Chapterisation.^: The entire study has been divided into following six chapters* Chapter-I is a detailed coverage of the Evolution of the Office of the District Officer. It is this institution which served people through different ages and ventilated their grievances in most effective manner even after deduction of various powers/powers deoegated to different heads of the district.
10 Chapter-II is divided into two sections. Section A covers diffei-ent patterns of land system, rights of tenants before and after the land reforms and the duties of the Collector as well. Whereas, Section-B reviews the Revenue Collection Machinery of the district in detail. Chapter-Ill defines in detail the Role of the District Officer as a Magistrate in maintaining law and order in the district, i^art from it, the role of civil police and armed forces, \rfiich are main instruments in maintaining peace and tranquility, are also examined in order to depict declining position of the District Magistrate in this sphere. Chapter-IV is entitled as Development Administration, ^ Local Administration and the District Officer. It covers actual position of the District Officer in development administration of the district and his relationship with Panchayati J^J institutions. Chapter - V again divided into Section A and B, and is an elaborate study of the reaponsibilites of the District Officer particularly in Aligarh district in relation to revenue law and order, Panchayati Raj Institution, District Development Board etc.
11 The concluding Chapter VI is the simmary and contains observations based on the study. If these observations along with the other ones given in the preceding chapters aire taken seriously, it may likely improve the efficiency of district administration.