The name District Collector evokes awe even among the senior officers. The person on the street looks at the post as a saviour and the administration is diffident in the presence of the Collector. The post was created on May 14, 1772 by the East India Company.
The post has come a long way in the 244 years and evolved into the key person in the development of the district. Celebrating the occasion, a week-long photographic exhibition of contributions of various Sub-Collectors of Paderu Revenue Division got under way at the office of the Paderu Sub- Collector at Paderu in the district on Saturday.
“Paderu Sub-Collector post was created in 1979 and the first officer was Rachel Chatterjee. The officers who occupied the post have gained prominence for their exemplary service record, among them are S Chellappa, AK Parida, Koppula Raju, T Vijaya Kumar, D Sambasiva Rao, G Saiprasad, S Narasinga Rao, Siddharth Jain, Mukesh Kumar Meena and Solomon Arokiaraj,” Paderu Sub-Collector Lotheti Siva Sankar told The Hindu .
Each of these officers is remembered with fondness by the people of the revenue division and that is an inspiration for us, he added.
The exhibition has been organised to create awareness among the people on the evolving role of the head of Revenue Sub-Division and inspire confidence among them to approach the officers and the administration with their grievances and get them redressed, he said.
The officer has listed out the important dates in the evolution of the office of Collector. Interestingly, a Collector was appointed in Visakhapatnam District in 1803 and N. Yuvaraj is the district’s 121{+s}{+t}Collector.
“Due to paucity of time, we could not plan for a proper celebration, but we should be able to celebrate it in a big way next year. We would consult all stakeholders and draw up the programme. We are planning to invite all the earlier Sub-Collectors to participate in the celebrations,” Mr. Siva Sankar added.
