West Bengal Civil Service
 | This article may require copy editing for punctuation, clarity, peacock phrases. (June 2023) |
| Service overview | |
|---|---|
| Gegründet | 1950[1] |
| Land | Indien |
| Staff college |
|
| Cadre controlling authority | Personnel & Administrative Reforms Department |
| Minister responsible | Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal and Home Minister |
| Legal personality | Governmental; Civil Service |
| Cadre strength | |
| Selection | West Bengal Public Service Commission (WBPSC) |
| Success Rate | 0.5% |
| Head of the civil services | |
| Chief Secretary | Shri H. K. Dwivedi, IAS[5] |
West Bengal Civil Service (Executive), popularly known as W.B.C.S.(Exe.), is the civil service of the Indian state of West Bengal. For the WBCS (Exe) and other comparative posts, Public Service Commission of West Bengal arranges competitive examinations in three phases every year. These phases are Preliminary, Mains and Personality Test.West Bengal Civil Service(Exe),the ascendant of Bengal Civil Service ,is the oldest non-covenanted civil service of the country and is as old as the covenanted Indian Civil Service. Famous author and novelist Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay,the bard who created Vandemataram was an officer of the Bengal Civil Service (Non covenanted).
WBCS Exams
| Exam Phase | Paper | Zeit | Subject | Question Type | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Exams | 1 paper (qualifying) | 2½ hrs. | General Studies (8 topics including Reasoning), English language, History, Geography, Current Affairs, General Knowledge, General Science and Indian Polity and Economy | MCQ | 200 |
| Main Exams | Paper I | 3 hrs. | Bengali / Hindi / Urdu / Nepali/Santali | Descriptive | 200 |
| Paper II | Englisch | 200 | |||
| Paper III | General Studies-I : History & Geography | MCQ | 200 | ||
| Paper IV | General Studies-II : Science & Technology, Environment, G.K and Current Affairs | 200 | |||
| Paper V | The Constitution of India & Indian Economy | 200 | |||
| Paper VI | Arithmetic and Test of Reasoning | 200 | |||
| Paper VII | Optional Subject Paper I[1] | Descriptive | 200 | ||
| Paper VIII | Optional Subject Paper II | 200 | |||
| Total Marks | 1600[2] | ||||
| |||||
| Personality Tests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| 200 Marks | 150 Marks | 100 Marks | |
Usually, online form fill up begins for WBCS in the month of November. Preliminary Exam is held in the Last week of January or first week of February at different cities of West Bengal. Post the publication of Preliminary results, Mains Exams are held in June–July in some selected institutions of Kolkata city and at the office of WBPSC. The candidates who passed in Mains are called for Personality test. At last, a selection list is issued by PSC consisting the name of qualified candidates of Mains Exams and Personality test. All these processes take up to one and a half year.
Recruitment
There are different groups in recruitment of such examination based on choice and merit of scored number. These are Group A, Group B (only for West Bengal Police Service ), Group C[6] and Group D. The WBCS (Exe) officers belong to Group A . In general, As per record of the WBPSC the candidates with higher scores opt for WBCS (Exe) first , WBPS and some allied services like erstwhile WBCTS etc. as their first choice. Since 1988 some of the top ranked candidates have opted an allied service called WB commercial Tax Service (WBCTS) as their first choice due to less strenuous nature of the service and the lure of metro posting. Mostly WBCS (Exe) & WBCTS(now WBRS) cadres along with WBA&AS cadre are promoted to IAS and WBPS officers to IPS after 7 to 9 years of service in state police service.[7]
Functions
The WBCS (Exe) officers are initially appointed as Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector( On Probation) ,in the pay grade of Group -A services ,akin to the IAS and after completion of two years of mandatory administrative training under the tutelage of Administrative Training Institute, start their career as Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector and Block Development (B.D.O.) Officers. They also pass order in Executive Magistrate Court and adjudicate under relevant sections of the Criminal Procedure Code.At the Sub Division level they adorn the chair of Sub Divisional Officer and DMDCs on General duty.
Block Development Officers are principal officers of the Blocks and discharge development and regulatory functions .They also officiate as Returning Officers of the Panchayat constituencies and Assistant Returning Officer in legislative and parliamentary elections . Office of the Block Development Officer can be visualised as mini secretariat .BDO plays a pivotal role in rural development and also doubles up as the Executive Officer of the Intermediate Panchayat (Panchayat Samity ) and Chairman of the Block Development Monitoring Committee.
At the District level different important offices like Additional District Magistrates, District Land and Land Reforms Officer ,District Panchayat and Rural Development Officer ,District Planning Officer, Officers of the Zilla Parishad.are adorned by WBCS(Exe) Officers.
The key developmental and regulatory administrative posts of Deputy Secretary ,Senior Deputy Secretary,Joint Secretary ,Additional Secretary ,Special Secretary( the seniormost position ) equivalent to Secretary in the Department for the IAS,are held by the WBCS(Exe).
The officers of the cadre perform the key administrative functions at different levels of various departments of the state. The highest position WBCS (Exe) officers can attain is that of Departmental secretary. Three posts of district magistrate in the State of West Bengal is reserved for these officers. WBCS (Exe) officers may also be nominated at a later stage of their career to become Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers.[8]
In 2017, West Bengal government merged four departments associated with revenue to form a single department 'West Bengal Revenue Service' (WBRS) to improve better service to the taxpayers. The four departments are West Bengal Commercial Tax Service, West Bengal Excise Service, West Bengal Agricultural Income Tax Service and West Bengal Registration and Stamp Revenue Service. The cadre management of the West Bengal Revenue Service is done by the Finance Department. The officers are initially appointed as Assistant commissioner of Revenue and then promoted to Deputy commissioner of Revenue, Joint Commissioner of Revenue, Senior Joint Commissioner of Revenue, Additional Commissioner of Revenue and Special Commissioner of Revenue. Like the WBCS(Exe) cadre, WBRS officers also get a chance to be promoted to Indian Administrative Service cadre at a later phase of their career.[9]
WBRS officers play a pivotal role in revenue collection, administration and mobilisation in the state. Many aspirants select WBRS as their first service preference over WBCS(Exe) and WBPS due to better work life balance, urban posting and less political interference leading to comfortable work culture. WBRS officers can be posted as Assistant commissioner in Commercial tax department, or as Deputy Excise Collector in Excise Directorate or as an Additional District Sub-Registrar in Directorate of Registration and Stamp Revenue. Officers recruited at a young age can get promoted upto Commissioner rank which is an IAS cadre post.
Services
Services are allotted in four groups, which are as follows:[10]
- Group A
- West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) WBCS (Exe)
- West Bengal Revenue Service (WBRS)[a]
- West Bengal Co-operative Service (WBCoS)
- West Bengal Labour Service (WBLS)
- West Bengal Food and Supplies Service (WBF&FS)
- West Bengal Employment Service (Non-Technical) (WBES)
- Group B
- West Bengal Police Service (WBPS)
- Group C
- West Bengal Correctional Home Services
- Joint Block Development Officer (Jt. BDO)
- Deputy Assistant Director of Consumers and Fair Business Practices
- West Bengal Junior Social Welfare Service (WBJSWS)
- Assistant Canal Revenue Officer (Irrigation) (ACRO–Irrigation)
- West Bengal Sub-ordinate Land Revenue Services, Grade-I (SLRO)
- Assistant Commercial Tax Officer (ACTO)
- Chief Controller of Correctional Service (CCCS)
- Group D
- Inspector of Co-operative Societies (ICoS)
- Panchayat Development Officer (PDO)
- Rehabilitation Officer (RO)
See also
References
- ^ About PSC, West Bengal wbpsc.gov.in
- ^ "Situation of country grim, politics of isolation not correct, says Mamata". www.millenniumpost.in. 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ "WBCS officers list as on 01-09-2019" (PDF), Government of West Bengal
- ^ "Gradation List of WBPS Officers (as on 01.05.2021)" (PDF). wbpolice.gov.in. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
- ^ "H K Dwivedi is new chief secretary of Bengal". The Times of India. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
- ^ "WBCS (Gr-C) new appointee of 2018", PSCWB
- ^ "Groups of Services of WBCS". WBCSMadeEasy. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
- ^ "WB CM announces incentives for WBCS officers". All India Trinamool Congress. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ "Constitution of West Bengal Revenue Service".
- ^ "WBCS Job Profile". Edufever Jobs. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
Notelist
- ^ Post GST implementation, the services like Commercial Tax Service (CTS), Agricultural Income Tax Service, Excise Service and Registration and Stamp Revenue Service were merged into one service.