RAS question
The District Collector in Rajasthan is typically an officer of which service?
Correct answer: (B) IAS (Indian Administrative Service).
In Rajasthan, the District Collector or District Magistrate is typically an Indian Administrative Service officer.
Explanation
The answer is IAS because Rajasthan's official State Portal places the District Collector or District Magistrate among the All-India officials responsible for district management and specifies that this officer is from the Indian Administrative Service. The Superintendent of Police is from the Indian Police Service, and the Deputy Conservator of Forests is from the Indian Forest Service. This follows the standard administrative pattern: district-level civil administration is led by the Collector, while police and forest functions are headed by officers from their respective services. Exceptional senior RAS postings do not change the usual answer, because the post is predominantly held by IAS officers.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) IPS officers are linked to police administration; the IPS district role is Superintendent of Police, not District Collector.
- (C) RPS is a state police service, so it belongs to the policing side of district administration rather than the Collector's civil administrative post.
- (D) RAS officers may hold important field posts and, in exceptional cases, senior RAS officers may be posted as Collectors, but the usual Collector post is predominantly an IAS post.
Concept
This tests the district administration portion of Rajasthan Polity, especially the distinction between All-India services and state services. It recurs in RAS because the Collector is the central district-level authority in administrative governance questions.