State Administrative Setup: Divisions, Districts, Tehsils — Chhattisgarh

Introduction

The administrative architecture of Chhattisgarh is one of the most dynamic and frequently examined aspects of the CGPSC State Service Examination. Since the state's formation on 1 November 2000 as the 26th state of the Indian Union, carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh has undergone several rounds of district reorganization, subdivision creation, and governance restructuring that any serious aspirant must master thoroughly.

This subtopic sits at the intersection of constitutional provisions, administrative law, and ground-level governance of the state. The CGPSC has repeatedly probed candidates' understanding of the chronological formation of districts, the placement of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies across the administrative hierarchy, and the designation of specific districts for national flagship programmes. Over the years this question cluster has generated five confirmed Previous Year Questions spanning 2018, 2019, and 2023, making it a high-frequency subtopic that demands both factual precision and conceptual clarity.

Understanding the administrative setup matters for several reasons beyond the examination hall. Chhattisgarh is a state where a large proportion of the territory falls within the Fifth Schedule and the provisions of PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996) — meaning that the ordinary three-tier administrative pyramid of division–district–tehsil interfaces with an additional layer of constitutional protection for tribal communities in scheduled areas. This intersection makes administrative geography doubly important: it determines which law applies on the ground, which officer holds authority, and which welfare schemes reach which beneficiary.

The CGPSC examines this subtopic at multiple cognitive levels. At the recall level, questions test the sequence in which original districts were declared, the number of Aspirational Districts designated under national programmes, and the courts established at various levels. At the comprehension level, questions probe the structural relationship between the Commissioner, the Collector, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, and the tehsildar. At the application level, questions ask candidates to match legislators with their constituencies — which requires knowing not only the name of the constituency but also its district placement.

The year-range of the five tested questions — 2018, 2019, and 2023 — shows that the topic is tested across both older and more recent papers, with a gap year followed by a return in 2023, indicating sustained examiners' interest. The 2023 questions specifically focused on the ascending chronological order of district declaration and on Family Courts' locations, indicating that the CGPSC paper-setters in recent years have become more granular in their demands.

This note covers the complete administrative hierarchy from the state level down to the revenue village, the evolution and current count of Chhattisgarh's districts and divisions, the role and jurisdiction of every tier, the judicial and quasi-judicial bodies established across the hierarchy, the constitutional and statutory basis for tribal area governance, the Aspirational District programme, and a comprehensive analysis of what the CGPSC has tested and is likely to test next. Everything here is CG-specific first, with constitutional and national frameworks provided only as necessary context.

Core Concepts & Foundations

Before proceeding to the finer details of Chhattisgarh's administrative map, every aspirant must have a clear grasp of the foundational vocabulary. Each of the terms below is used with a precise technical meaning in revenue law, administrative law, and constitutional provisions. This section is written from first principles — assume no prior knowledge of Indian revenue administration.

The Colonial Origin of the District System

The Indian district system is a colonial inheritance. The East India Company and later the British Crown consolidated the idea of the district as the primary unit of administration during the 19th century. The Collector was originally a revenue-extraction officer, responsible for collecting land revenue (the primary source of colonial state income) from peasant cultivators. Over time, the executive-magistracy role was layered on top of the revenue role, creating the omnibus administrator-judge-law-and-order officer that the Collector remains today.

When India became independent and states were reorganised under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the district system was retained intact. The newly-formed Chhattisgarh state in 2000 inherited not just the physical districts but the entire web of Revenue Codes, land-records formats (Khasra, B-1, Jamabandi, Naksha), administrative hierarchies, and officer cadres from Madhya Pradesh.

Understanding this historical layering is important for the CGPSC because questions occasionally probe the legal basis for administrative actions. When a Collector issues an order, the question is always: under which Act? The answer depends on the function — Land Revenue Code for revenue matters, CrPC for magistracy, Disaster Management Act for emergency response, PESA for tribal areas.

The Revenue Hierarchy: A Conceptual Map

Think of the revenue hierarchy as a nested set of geographic containers. The entire state of Chhattisgarh is one container. Inside it are five divisions, each a large region. Inside each division are several districts. Inside each district are several sub-divisions (or sometimes the district is not sub-divided for administrative purposes if it is small). Inside each sub-division are several tehsils. Inside each tehsil are several patwari circles. Inside each patwari circle are one or more revenue villages.

Every parcel of land in CG belongs to exactly one revenue village, which belongs to exactly one patwari circle, which belongs to exactly one tehsil, and so on up the chain. This nesting matters because it determines jurisdiction: when a farmer wants to get his land record mutated after a purchase, he goes to the tehsildar of the tehsil in which his village falls. If the tehsildar's order is disputed, the appeal goes to the SDM of the sub-division. If the SDM's order is disputed, the appeal goes to the Collector. If the Collector's order is disputed, it goes to the Divisional Commissioner. Beyond that lies the Board of Revenue and ultimately the High Court.

Key Differences Between Tiers

Note that the revenue hierarchy (Commissioner → Collector → SDM → Tehsildar → Patwari) is entirely appointed, not elected. The elected governance layer starts at the village level with the Gram Panchayat and rises through the Janpad Panchayat (block level) and Zila Panchayat (district level) under the Chhattisgarh Panchayati Raj Adhiniyam. The revenue hierarchy and the panchayat hierarchy run in parallel, not in a superior–subordinate relationship — though the Collector has supervisory oversight over panchayat financial management through the District Panchayat Officer.

Division (Sambhag): The largest administrative unit below the state level, headed by a Divisional Commissioner (Commissioner). A division groups several districts for purposes of revenue supervision, coordination of law-and-order, and monitoring of state schemes. In Chhattisgarh the division is a tier of administrative convenience rather than a unit of elected governance — no directly elected body exists at the division level.

District (Zila): The primary unit of field administration, headed by the District Collector and District Magistrate (Collector/DM). The Collector combines revenue, executive-magistracy, and developmental functions. Districts are created or bifurcated by a state government notification under the MP Land Revenue Code as extended to CG, which is the substantive law governing revenue administration in the state.

Sub-Division (Tehsil-Sub-Division or Anumandal): An intermediate unit between the district and the tehsil, headed by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) or Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO). Larger districts in CG are divided into sub-divisions; the SDM exercises first-class magistracy powers and certain revenue appellate functions.

Tehsil (Taluka): The primary revenue unit below the sub-division, headed by the Tehsildar. The tehsil is the cutting-edge unit of land-records management, mutation (nama-antaraN), Khasra-Khatauni maintenance, and revenue recovery. The Tehsildar is the field face of the Revenue Department for ordinary citizens.

Patwari Circle: Below the tehsil, each circle is administered by a Patwari (Revenue Inspector), who maintains the actual Khasra (field register) and Bhuiya (land records computerisation portal of CG). The Patwari circle is the smallest revenue jurisdiction.

Revenue Village (Gram): The base unit of the entire revenue hierarchy. Each revenue village has an assigned survey number sequence, a village Khasra, and is mapped in the district Gazetteers.

Collector/DM: The Collector combines two distinct constitutional and statutory personalities: as Collector, the officer heads revenue administration and collection; as District Magistrate, the officer exercises executive-magistracy powers under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), directing the police superintendent on law-and-order matters. This dual hat is a legacy of the colonial unification of revenue and criminal jurisdiction in the same office.

Aspirational District: A district designated under the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) launched by the NITI Aayog / Government of India in 2018 to fast-track development in India's most socio-economically laggard districts across health, education, nutrition, financial inclusion, and infrastructure. In Chhattisgarh, ten such districts were selected — the highest in any single state at the time of designation — reflecting the deep developmental challenges especially in the tribal and forested south.

Commissioner (Divisional Commissioner): The head of a Revenue Division, senior to the Collector. The Commissioner hears revenue appeals from Collector orders, coordinates multi-district administration, and is the nodal officer for centrally sponsored schemes across the division. The Commissioner is typically an IAS officer of Selection Grade or above.

Family Court: A specialized civil court established under the Family Courts Act, 1984 to handle matters of matrimony, maintenance, custody, adoption, and related disputes outside the ordinary civil court framework. The State Government establishes Family Courts in consultation with the High Court, and the precise list of districts/towns where they have been established is a frequently tested factual datum in CGPSC.

Lokayukta: The Lokayukta (also written Lokāyukta) is an independent statutory authority established under state law to investigate complaints of maladministration and corruption against public servants. The office-holder is typically a retired judge of a High Court or Supreme Court. The post's institutional genealogy in CG flows from the broader Lokpal concept; the specific incumbent is a frequently tested current-affairs fact.

Constituency: A geographically delimited unit from which one member is elected to the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly). Constituencies are carved within districts but do not follow tehsil boundaries precisely. Matching MLA names to constituencies is a frequently tested pattern in CGPSC, particularly for elections held in the years preceding the examination.

Bhuiyan: The integrated land-records computerisation platform of Chhattisgarh, combining the Bhu-naksha (cadastral map module) and Khasra-B1 (record-of-rights module). Every parcel in CG has a digitised entry in Bhuiyan, accessible via the online portal. The Patwari updates Bhuiyan following mutations approved by the Tehsildar, and citizens can obtain certified copies of their land records (B-1, P-II Khatauni) online. Bhuiyan replaced paper-based Khasra maintenance and has substantially reduced land-record manipulation.

Naib Tehsildar: An officer one rank below the Tehsildar, assisting with revenue work in larger tehsils, and often entrusted with mutation hearings in rural areas. In a contested sub-division, a Naib Tehsildar may be designated to handle a cluster of villages independently.

Board of Revenue: The apex revenue appellate authority in Chhattisgarh at the state level, above the Divisional Commissioner in the revenue appeals chain. Established under the Revenue Code, the Board hears second-level appeals and revisions from Commissioner orders. It is a quasi-judicial body, not a court in the strict sense, but its orders are binding on the revenue hierarchy.

PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996): Central legislation enacted under Article 243M(4)(b) to extend the 73rd Amendment's Panchayati Raj provisions to Fifth Schedule (tribal) areas, with modifications granting the Gram Sabha (village assembly of all adult residents) enhanced powers over land, minor minerals, minor forest produce, and local resources — powers not available to ordinary Panchayat Gram Sabhas in non-scheduled areas.

Evolution and Current Structure of Chhattisgarh's Administrative Divisions

The Founding Moment: November 2000

When Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on 1 November 2000, it inherited the pre-existing administrative structure of its parent state. The new state began with 16 districts grouped into three divisions. The three founding divisions were Raipur Division, Bilaspur Division, and Bastar Division — a three-pronged geography reflecting the cultural and geographic heartland (Raipur), the coal-mineral belt (Bilaspur), and the vast tribal plateau (Bastar).

The 16 founding districts were:

1. Bastar
2. Bilaspur
3. Dantewada (carved out of Bastar in 1998, inherited)
4. Dhamtari
5. Durg
6. Jashpur
7. Kanker
8. Kawardha (now Kabirdham)
9. Korba
10. Koriya
11. Mahasamund
12. Raigarh
13. Raipur
14. Rajnandgaon
15. Surguja
16. Janjgeer-Champa (created in 1998, inherited)

This set of 16 was not the very original 1956 MP configuration — several had already been bifurcated in the decades before CG's formation, but the state began its journey with all 16. Understanding the relative seniority of districts matters because the CGPSC has specifically tested the ascending order of year-of-declaration for the founding districts (tested in 2023).

Among the four most senior districts — those whose lineage as administrative units predates CG statehood by the greatest margin — Bilaspur is the oldest identifiable distinct administrative entity, followed by Bastar, then Surguja, and then Durg, though the precise year of gazette notification for each requires reference to the original MP revenue notifications. The CGPSC 2023 question on ascending order placed Bilaspur first (oldest) → Bastar → Surguja → Durg → which aligns with the general historical understanding of these districts' administrative vintage.

Post-Statehood District Creation: The Wave of Bifurcations

Chhattisgarh has experienced multiple rounds of district creation, driven by the twin imperatives of bringing administration closer to tribal and rural populations in geographically vast districts, and of meeting the political and developmental demands of emerging urban centres.

Phase 1 (2007–2012): The first significant round of bifurcation under the state government created several new districts. Bijapur (from Dantewada), Narayanpur (from Bastar), Sukma (from Dantewada), Kondagaon (from Bastar), Balod (from Durg), Baloda Bazar (from Raipur), Gariaband (from Raipur), Mungeli (from Bilaspur), Surajpur (from Surguja), and Bemetara (from Durg and Rajnandgaon) were among the new units created in this period, pushing the total to 27 districts.

Phase 2 (2019–2020): Further subdivision brought CG to 28 districts with the creation of Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM) district, carved from Bilaspur district in 2020. This was a politically significant creation given the district's mineral and cultural distinctiveness.

Phase 3 (2022–2023): In August 2022, the Bhupesh Baghel government announced the creation of 4 new districts — Sarangarh-Bilaigarh, Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur (MCB), Shakti, and Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki — bringing the total to 32 districts for a brief period. Subsequent notifications completed the process, and by early 2023 Chhattisgarh stood at 33 districts with the addition of Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai.

As of the mid-2020s, Chhattisgarh has 33 districts grouped under five Revenue Divisions:

(Note: The precise current grouping may vary with notifications; aspirants should confirm with the latest CG Rajpatra.)

Tehsil and Sub-Division Count

Below the district, each district is divided into sub-divisions (managed by SDMs) and then into tehsils (managed by Tehsildars). As of the most recent revenue notifications, CG has over 150 tehsils across its 33 districts. The Collector's office at the district headquarters exercises appellate supervision over all tehsil-level revenue orders.

The Logic of District Bifurcation

Why does CG keep splitting districts? Each bifurcation follows a recognizable pattern of administrative, developmental, and political logic:

Administrative logic: Large districts impose enormous geographic burdens on field administration. Bastar district, before its multiple bifurcations, was larger than some Indian states. A Patwari in a remote Abujhmad village would need several days of travel to reach the district headquarters at Jagdalpur. Smaller districts bring administration physically closer to citizens.

Developmental logic: New districts receive their own Collector, district administration machinery, and district-level scheme allocations (MGNREGS funds, District Mineral Foundation funds, etc.). A district headquarters attracts courts, hospitals, colleges, and commercial establishments. Creating a new district is thus a powerful developmental intervention that concentrates government resources in a previously remote area.

Political logic: Every new district headquarters is a new center of patronage and political identity. Local leaders from dominant tribal or OBC communities in a remote region lobby for district-hood because it elevates their area's political profile and creates new administrative posts.

Chhattisgarh's Five Divisions in Detail

Raipur Division is the most populous and economically active division, anchored by the state capital and the Bhilai–Durg industrial corridor. It encompasses the fertile Chhattisgarh Plain (the Mahanadi basin's upper catchment, sometimes called the "Rice Bowl of Central India"), the growing IT and services economy of Raipur city, and the rapidly urbanizing Bhilai-Durg conurbation.

Bilaspur Division is the mineral and energy heartland. Korba hosts the NTPC Korba super thermal power plant, one of India's largest; Bilaspur itself is the judicial capital of the state. The division contains major coal fields (Korba, Hasdeo-Arand area) and is administratively associated with several significant Public Sector Undertakings.

Surguja Division in the north is a tribal-cultural region bordering Jharkhand. Ambikapur, the divisional headquarters, is a rapidly growing town. The Surguja region has significant coal and bauxite deposits and a high proportion of Oraon and Gond tribal communities. The Jashpur plateau within Surguja division has a distinct Christian missionary history and a relatively higher literacy rate.

Bastar Division is the most geographically isolated and developmentally challenged. It encompasses the entire Bastar plateau — a forested, hilly terrain with some of India's densest tribal populations. Districts like Sukma, Bijapur, and Dantewada have been severely affected by Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), complicating both administrative delivery and development. The division is rich in iron ore (Bailadila mines), bauxite, and forest resources. The Indravati National Park and several wildlife sanctuaries fall in this division.

Durg Division, expanded in the 2022 reorganisation to accommodate new districts from Rajnandgaon's belt, covers the northwestern agricultural and tribal fringe. Rajnandgaon is known as the birthplace of the national poet Padma Shri Komal Vaishnav and has a significant cultural identity. Kabirdham (formerly Kawardha) in this division is a tribal-agrarian district.

The Collector: Powers, Functions, and Accountability

The IAS vs. State Civil Service Officers in District Administration

District Collectors in CG are typically from two cadres: the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Chhattisgarh State Administrative Service (SAS). Larger, more complex districts (especially aspirational districts, LWE-affected districts, and state-capital adjacent districts) are typically headed by IAS officers, who bring seniority, network, and additional administrative capacity. Smaller districts may be headed by SAS officers in an officiating capacity.

The SDM is typically a SAS officer (Deputy Collector equivalent). The Tehsildar is from the Revenue Service (state). Below the Tehsildar, the Naib Tehsildar and Patwari belong to revenue subordinate services. This multi-cadre structure means that revenue administration in CG involves four or five distinct service cadres operating in a hierarchically integrated system — each with its own recruitment, training, seniority, and disciplinary authority.

Constitutional and Statutory Basis

The office of the Collector is not directly created by the Constitution of India — the Constitution establishes the framework of state executive power and civil services but leaves the design of field administration to the states. In Chhattisgarh, the Collector's functions derive from:

1. The Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code, 1959 (as adapted from the MP Land Revenue Code) — governs all revenue administration.
2. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) — confers executive-magistracy powers.
3. Disaster Management Act, 2005 — makes the Collector the District Disaster Management Authority chair.
4. Various state welfare Acts — SC/ST Atrocities Act, PESA, MGNREGS district-level implementation.

Revenue Functions

As the apex revenue officer in the district, the Collector hears appeals from SDM orders, sanctions mutations (transfer of land records on inheritance, sale, or partition), supervises the Khasra update cycle, manages government land vesting and assignment, and certifies land conversions from agricultural to non-agricultural use.

The computerisation of land records under Bhuiyan (the CG government's integrated land records portal combining Khasra, B-1, and Naksha modules) has enhanced transparency but has not reduced the Collector's statutory role — all disputed entries still pass through revenue courts up to the Collector's bench.

Law and Order / Magistracy Functions

As the District Magistrate, the Collector:

• Supervises the district police and liaises with the Superintendent of Police on public order matters.
• Grants or cancels arms licences, cinema licences, and public gathering permissions.
• Exercises preventive detention powers under Section 107, 108, 109, 110 of the CrPC (binding over, surety proceedings).
• Presides over the District Crisis Management Committee for disaster and large-scale emergency response.

In CG's Maoist-affected southern districts — Bastar, Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kondagaon — the DM function takes on heightened importance, with the Collector coordinating civil and security administration in a low-intensity conflict environment. The Collector in these districts typically participates in the District Security Committee chaired by the Central Armed Police Forces commander alongside the Superintendent of Police and CRPF Sector Commander.

The Collector in Disaster Management

Under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, each district has a District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) with the Collector as Chairperson and the elected district Zila Panchayat president as co-chairperson. The DDMA prepares the District Disaster Management Plan, maintains relief stores, coordinates emergency response, and submits damage assessment reports to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA). In flood-prone CG districts (particularly those in the Mahanadi and Seonath river basins), the DDMA role is activated almost every monsoon.

Revenue Appeals Chain: A Step-by-Step Walk-Through

Consider a farmer in Dantewada district who disputes the Tehsildar's mutation order. The appeals path is:

1. Tehsildar — original order on mutation.
2. SDM (Sub-Divisional Magistrate) — first appeal; hears the parties, reviews the Khasra entries, and can confirm, reverse, or modify the Tehsildar's order.
3. Collector — second appeal; sits as a revenue court; can refer to the Patwari for field inspection if records are disputed.
4. Divisional Commissioner — third appeal / revision; typically the final field-level authority.
5. Board of Revenue, Chhattisgarh — highest revenue appellate authority in the state executive hierarchy.
6. High Court of Chhattisgarh (Bilaspur) — writ jurisdiction (Article 226) if fundamental rights are involved or the Board of Revenue has erred in law.

This six-step chain is long, but each step has a prescribed time limit under the Revenue Code. The existence of the Board of Revenue above the Commissioner is a point frequently missed by candidates who treat the Commissioner as the final revenue authority.

Developmental and Coordination Functions

The Collector chairs the District Planning Committee (DPC) where it exists, the District Level Monitoring Committee for MGNREGS, the District Health Mission board, and multiple scheme-specific committees. In CG's tribal districts, the Collector also interfaces with the Gram Sabha authority exercised under PESA, which gives tribal village assemblies a veto over certain land-use decisions.

Judicial and Quasi-Judicial Bodies at the District Level

Family Courts in Chhattisgarh

The Family Courts Act, 1984 mandated the establishment of Family Courts in every city with a population exceeding one million. Subsequently, state governments were encouraged to extend the scheme to smaller towns to reduce the burden on ordinary civil courts and provide a more sensitive, mediation-oriented forum for family disputes.

In Chhattisgarh, Family Courts have been established across a large number of districts, including all the major district headquarters. The CGPSC 2023 question specifically tested whether Family Courts exist in Kanker, Balod, Janjgeer-Champa, and Kabirdham — and the correct answer was that all four of these districts have Family Courts. This is significant because all four are relatively small or newly created districts, indicating CG's extensive rollout of the scheme across its entire district network.

The key institutional features of Family Courts:

• Headed by a Principal Judge (Family Court).
• No formal adversarial procedure — the court is encouraged to attempt conciliation first.
• Proceedings in camera for sensitive matrimonial matters.
• Jurisdiction over divorce, restitution of conjugal rights, maintenance, custody, and property disputes arising from marriage.

District and Sessions Court

Every district in CG has a District and Sessions Court headed by the District and Sessions Judge — who is a higher judicial service officer under the High Court of Chhattisgarh (headquartered at Bilaspur). The Sessions Judge tries sessions (serious criminal) cases; the District Judge sits as a civil court for higher-value suits. Both functions are typically vested in the same officer.

The High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur is the apex civil and criminal court for the state. Notably, Bilaspur (not Raipur, the state capital) hosts the High Court — a distinction frequently tested by CGPSC.

Lokayukta

The Lokayukta of Chhattisgarh is an independent constitutional-moral authority established under the Chhattisgarh Lokayukta Evam Uplokayukta Adhiniyam, 2001. The Lokayukta investigates allegations of corruption, maladministration, and abuse of authority against public servants including ministers, MLAs, and gazetted officers. The CGPSC 2019 paper tested the identity of the incumbent Lokayukta — Justice T.P. Sharma was the answer at that time.

The Lokayukta's institutional importance in CG is heightened by the state's tribal welfare mandate — much of the maladministration investigated by the Lokayukta touches on land alienation, forest rights, and welfare-scheme diversion in tribal areas.

Aspirational Districts: Chhattisgarh's Development Challenge

National Programme Background

The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) was launched by the Government of India in January 2018 under the aegis of NITI Aayog, with the Prime Minister's Office taking a close interest. The programme identified 117 districts across India that lagged significantly on composite indices of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, and basic infrastructure.

The selection methodology combined district-level data from multiple central ministries and NITI Aayog's own socio-economic census analyses. The five thematic domains with specific KPIs were monitored through a real-time dashboard (the Champions of Change portal, later renamed) to facilitate competitive peer-learning across the 117 districts.

Chhattisgarh's Aspirational Districts

Chhattisgarh had 10 Aspirational Districts — the highest single-state count in the programme at launch. The CGPSC 2019 paper tested this number precisely, with distractors at 8, 9, and 11.

The ten aspirational districts of CG are concentrated in the tribal-heartland south and the remote northern margins:

1. Bastar
2. Bijapur
3. Dantewada
4. Sukma
5. Narayanpur
6. Kondagaon
7. Kanker
8. Rajnandgaon
9. Korba
10. Dhamtari (in some government lists Balrampur replaces Dhamtari — aspirants should note the official GoI list)

The high number reflects Chhattisgarh's dual challenge: the Bastar plateau's persistent development deficit driven by conflict, geographic isolation, and historical exclusion; and the coal-belt districts' high absolute poverty despite resource richness. The Aspirational District Ranking updated monthly from the portal became a governance accountability tool for district Collectors.

From Aspirational to Achiever: Progress Tracking

The ADP introduced competitive federalism at the district level — district Collectors were incentivised to climb the national rank by improving KPI scores. Several CG districts, particularly those with proactive Collectors and DISHA committee oversight, showed measurable gains in institutional delivery (health, schools, banking). The programme dovetails with the DISHA (District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee) framework involving elected MPs at the district level.

Vidhan Sabha Constituencies and the District-Constituency Matrix

The CG Vidhan Sabha

The Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha (State Legislative Assembly) has 90 seats, with constituency boundaries delimited by the Election Commission of India in consultation with the Delimitation Commission's recommendations. CG was delimited in 2008 following the formation of the state in 2000.

Each district contains several assembly segments. Larger districts like Raipur and Bilaspur may have a dozen or more constituencies; smaller districts like Narayanpur or Bijapur may have just two or three.

The MLA-Constituency Matching Pattern

The CGPSC 2018 paper presented a List-A/List-B matching question pairing four MLAs — Rudra Kumar Guru, Devendra Bahadur Singh, Dr. Laxmi Dhruw, and Dharamjeet Singh — with the constituencies of Sihawa, Lormi, Bana, and Ahiwara. The official answer key for this question was not available in the PYQ set, meaning aspirants cannot definitively derive the correct pairing from the question alone. However, the exercise teaches the critical skill of knowing which constituency falls within which district, and which political figure represents which region.

Key constituency–district associations that aspirants frequently confuse:

The CGPSC pattern of testing MLA–constituency matching is observed in multiple years. The best preparation strategy is to study the constituency-level election results from the most recent CG Vidhan Sabha election alongside the district map.

Reserved Constituencies

Of the 90 assembly seats, 29 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 10 for Scheduled Castes (SC), reflecting CG's demographic profile — approximately 30% ST and 12% SC. Reserved constituencies are primarily located in Bastar, Surguja, Raigarh, and Jashpur divisions. This spatial distribution overlaps almost entirely with the Fifth Schedule areas and the PESA-governed Gram Sabhas, making reserved constituency politics intertwined with tribal governance issues.

Fifth Schedule, PESA, and Tribal Area Administration

The Fifth Schedule Framework

Article 244(1) of the Indian Constitution along with the Fifth Schedule provides for the administration of Scheduled Areas — tribal-majority regions with special constitutional protection. Scheduled Areas are notified by the President of India on the recommendation of the state government. In CG, the Fifth Schedule applies across the entire southern tribal belt and parts of northern CG.

Scheduled Area: A geographic zone notified under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution where special provisions apply for the protection of tribal land rights, cultural practices, and self-governance, distinguishing it from ordinary administrative territory subject solely to mainstream state law.

The Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) is a mandatory body in every Fifth Schedule state, chaired by the Chief Minister, with three-fourths of its members being MLAs from Scheduled Tribe constituencies. The TAC advises the Governor (who has special powers in Fifth Schedule areas) on matters relating to welfare and advancement of Scheduled Tribes. In CG, the TAC functions as a statutory consultative body alongside the regular cabinet.

PESA, 1996: Architecture and Significance

The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) is among the most significant pieces of legislation affecting ground-level governance in CG. Enacted under Article 243M(4)(b), PESA extends the Panchayati Raj framework to Scheduled Areas but with crucial modifications that empower the Gram Sabha (village assembly) far beyond its role in non-scheduled areas.

Under PESA, the Gram Sabha in a tribal village has mandatory consultative or consent rights over:

• Land acquisition for development projects (including mining and industrial projects).
• Management of minor minerals.
• Regulation of money-lending to tribals.
• Control over markets and fairs.
• Management of minor water bodies.
• Prevention of alienation of land to non-tribals.

The Gram Sabha under PESA thus sits as a constitutional check on both the district administration and the state government's revenue apparatus — a feature with no parallel in non-scheduled districts. In CG, where large mineral concessions in Bastar and Surguja involve tribal land, the PESA Gram Sabha consultation requirement has been a contested terrain in multiple legal and administrative disputes.

Chhattisgarh's PESA Rules

CG notified its own PESA Rules to operationalise the central Act. The rules prescribe the modalities for Gram Sabha meetings, quorum requirements, and the specific subjects on which the Gram Sabha must be consulted before administrative action. The interface between the Collector's land-acquisition powers and the Gram Sabha's PESA veto has been litigated extensively, with the High Court of Chhattisgarh affirming that consultation is a mandatory precondition, not a mere formality.

Forest Rights Act, 2006: The Third Legal Layer in Tribal Districts

Alongside the Fifth Schedule and PESA, tribal district administration is now also governed by the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). The FRA recognises two categories of rights for tribal communities in forest areas:

Individual Forest Rights (IFR): Rights of individual tribal families to the land they have cultivated in forest areas for at least three generations (75 years before the enactment). These rights are evidenced by a pattas (title documents) issued after verification by the Gram Sabha, the Sub-Divisional Level Committee (SDLC), and the District Level Committee (DLC).

Community Forest Rights (CFR): Rights of tribal communities to manage, protect, and use forest land as a community — including community-managed forests, water bodies, and grazing grounds.

The Collector chairs the District Level Committee (DLC) which is the final administrative authority for granting IFR and CFR titles at the district level. This makes forest-rights adjudication one of the most consequential and politically contested functions of CG district administration, particularly in Bastar and Surguja divisions where millions of acres of claimed forest land remain under adjudication.

CG has been among the states with large numbers of FRA claims, but also among those with significant rejection rates — a subject of civil society criticism and litigation.

Scheduled Tribes and Chhattisgarh's Tribal Demography

Chhattisgarh is home to 42 recognized Scheduled Tribes, including the Gond, Halba, Baiga, Oraon (Kurukh), Kamar, Abujhmaria, Birhore, Pahari Korwa, and others. Five tribes — Baiga, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, Abujhmaria, and Birhor — are recognized as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) requiring special administrative outreach.

The district administration in tribal-majority districts must navigate the interface between ordinary revenue administration and these special constitutional protections. A Collector posting in Dantewada or Bastar is qualitatively different from a Collector posting in Durg — the PESA layer, the security context, the forest rights adjudication (under the Forest Rights Act, 2006), and the Aspirational District monitoring all add layers of complexity.

The Governor's Special Role Under the Fifth Schedule

A frequently underappreciated aspect of tribal area administration in CG is the role of the Governor of Chhattisgarh. Under the Fifth Schedule, the Governor:

• Has the power to direct that any Act of Parliament or the State Legislature shall not apply to a Scheduled Area, or shall apply with modifications.
• Must make an annual report to the President of India regarding the administration of Scheduled Areas.
• Acts on the advice of the Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) on tribal welfare matters but retains certain independent discretion.

This gubernatorial power is constitutionally significant because it gives the Governor a role beyond the ceremonial in CG — directly impacting whether central and state laws like the Panchayati Raj Act, the Land Acquisition Act (as amended), or environmental clearance regulations apply to tribal areas. The interplay between the Governor's Fifth Schedule powers and the state cabinet's decisions is a recurring theme in CG's administrative and legal history.

Administrative Challenges in Aspirational Districts: The Collector's Role

In the ten Aspirational Districts of CG, the Collector wears an additional hat as the Aspirational Districts Programme Implementation Officer. The national ADP monitoring framework requires the Collector to:

• Update district-level KPI data monthly on the central portal.
• Convene the DISHA Committee (District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee) quarterly, which includes the district's elected Member of Parliament (MP) as chairperson.
• Present district performance data to visiting NITI Aayog and Ministry officials during review missions.
• Identify and resolve the specific "last mile" delivery gaps that keep district scores low on health, education, or financial inclusion indices.

This makes the Collector in an Aspirational District one of the most scrutinized and accountable field officials in the Indian administrative system — subject to monthly national ranking and visibility at the highest levels of government.

Worked Examples & Applications

Working Through the District Chronology Question (CGPSC 2023)

A 2023 question asked candidates to identify the correct ascending chronological sequence of four districts — Bilaspur, Bastar, Surguja, and Durg — by year of administrative declaration. The correct answer placed them in the order: Bilaspur (oldest) → Bastar → Surguja → Durg (most recently declared among the four).

To reason through this: administrative districts in what is now CG were carved out of the Central Provinces and later Madhya Pradesh over many decades. Bilaspur has the deepest administrative continuity as a distinct unit, traceable to British-era District Gazetteer notifications from the late 19th century. Bastar similarly has a long history as a former princely state administratively reorganised into a district early in the post-independence era — but after Bilaspur. Surguja was a group of princely states merged into a district somewhat later. Durg (the industrialising steel-belt district centred on Bhilai Steel Plant's hinterland) was carved out through a later notification.

The distractor options played on natural assumptions — placing Surguja or Durg first because of their size or industrial importance — but chronological order follows administrative notification history, not developmental profile or geographic area. This tests a type of knowledge that can only come from systematic study of district-formation history, not general intuition.

Working Through the Family Courts Question (CGPSC 2023)

The 2023 question asked which of four listed districts — Kanker, Balod, Janjgeer-Champa, Kabirdham — have Family Courts, with the possible answers suggesting that not all four might have them. The correct answer was that all four districts have Family Courts.

The trap in this question was the assumption that Family Courts are restricted to large urban centres or metropolitan cities. Under the national Family Courts expansion policy, CG has been among the states that extended the scheme to virtually all district headquarters, including relatively small and tribal-belt districts like Narayanpur and Kanker. A candidate who assumed that Balod (a newer, smaller district) or Kabirdham (a relatively remote district in the northern tribal fringe) lacked Family Courts would have chosen a wrong option. The correct reasoning proceeds from the principle that CG has made Family Court access universal across its district network — any district headquarters is presumed to have one unless specified otherwise.

Working Through the Lokayukta Question (CGPSC 2019)

The 2019 paper asked for the Lokayukta of CG at that time, with Justice T.P. Sharma as the correct answer and three other retired judges — Justice C.L. Bhadu, Justice Minhajuddin, Justice Naveen Sinha — as distractors. All four names are real judicial personalities connected to CG or neighbouring state judiciaries, making the question a genuine test of current-affairs recall rather than a logical deduction exercise.

The distractors were well-chosen: Justice Naveen Sinha, for instance, is associated with the Allahabad and Patna High Courts and is not a CG figure, but a candidate with only passing familiarity might confuse the name. Justice Minhajuddin has been associated with CG High Court judicial functions. The lesson is clear: for current-affairs posts like the Lokayukta, there is no substitute for keeping a running list of constitutional and statutory appointees in CG updated to the year of the examination.

Working Through the Aspirational Districts Number (CGPSC 2019)

The 2019 question on the count of Aspirational Districts in CG chose distractors of 8, 9, 11, and 10 (correct). The distractors at 8 and 9 might appeal to a candidate who knew CG had "many" Aspirational Districts but guessed a slightly lower number; the distractor of 11 would trap a candidate who overcounted after a vague recollection of the programme. The mnemonic discipline here is to remember: CG = 10 Aspirational Districts = the highest among all states at programme launch.

Working Through the Constituency–MLA Matching Question (CGPSC 2018)

The 2018 paper asked candidates to match four MLAs with four constituencies using a List-A / List-B format. The MLAs given were Rudra Kumar Guru, Devendra Bahadur Singh, Dr. Laxmi Dhruw, and Dharamjeet Singh, and the constituencies were Sihawa, Lormi, Bana, and Ahiwara. The official answer key was not available in the reconstructed PYQ set for this note.

However, the question teaches the critical principle of constituency–district geography. Here is how to approach any such matching question systematically:

Step 1: Anchor each constituency to its district using the Electoral Roll or the Delimitation Commission's schedule. Sihawa falls in Dhamtari district (central plains). Lormi is in Mungeli district (Bilaspur division belt). Ahiwara is in Durg district (Durg industrial belt). Bana is in the Rajnandgaon or Durg fringe area.

Step 2: Match each MLA's known public biography to the region. Elected representatives from a tribal constituency have typically either a tribal surname or a known affiliation with the dominant tribe of that area. MLAs from industrial belt constituencies (like Ahiwara near Durg) typically have an urban or OBC political profile.

Step 3: Use elimination. If one matching is clearly correct from your knowledge (say, you are certain that a particular MLA won Lormi in 2013 or 2018), lock that in and use process of elimination for the remaining three.

This methodical approach converts a "guess from memory" question into a "reason from geography and political knowledge" question. The CGPSC expects aspirants to know both the constituency map and the political landscape of the most recent election before their examination cycle.

PYQ Trends & Patterns

The five questions from CGPSC papers spanning 2018, 2019, and 2023 reveal a clear and consistent pattern in how examiners approach this subtopic.

Pattern 1 — Chronological and Spatial Recall of Districts: The 2023 question on ascending order of district declaration tests the candidate's knowledge of administrative history, not just geography. This is a harder-than-average question because it requires memorising not just which districts exist but when they were created relative to each other. Expect this pattern to recur — especially with newer districts (Sarangarh-Bilaigarh, MCB, Shakti, GPM, Khairagarh-CG) being relatively easy additions to a matching-or-ordering question.

Pattern 2 — Judicial/Quasi-Judicial Body Placement: The Family Courts question (2023) and the Lokayukta question (2019) both test the placement or incumbency of a specific institution within the administrative hierarchy. CGPSC examiners clearly believe that an officer of the state administration must know not just theoretical structures but actual operational facts — where courts are located, who holds which office. This pattern will continue.

Pattern 3 — National Programme Data Points: The Aspirational Districts question (2019) tested a pure quantitative fact about a GoI programme applied to CG. This is a recurring genre in CGPSC: national programme + CG-specific number = high-probability question. The ADP is well-established enough to generate follow-up questions about district-wise rankings, thematic performance, or DISHA committee functions.

Pattern 4 — Constituency–MLA Matching: The 2018 question on matching MLAs to constituencies is a genre that appears in almost every CGPSC paper in some form. The specific MLAs and constituencies vary with the election cycle. For the current examination cycle, candidates must map the outcomes of the most recent CG Vidhan Sabha election (December 2023, BJP won) to constituency-district geography.

Difficulty gradient: The questions range from moderate (ADP count, Family Courts placement) to harder (district chronological sequence, MLA matching). The 2023 set was harder on average than the 2019 set. This suggests a trend toward more nuanced, fact-specific questions as the CGPSC paper-setters respond to improved candidate preparation levels.

Year-wise coverage: 2018 (1 Q), 2019 (2 Q), 2023 (2 Q). The gap years (2020, 2021, 2022) saw no confirmed PYQ from this subtopic in the available set, but absence of confirmed questions does not mean absence — the available PYQ set may be incomplete.

Examiner Psychology: Why This Subtopic is Tested the Way It Is

The CGPSC State Service Examination recruits officers who will work within the very administrative system being tested. An SDM appointed from this cohort must know which districts exist, which courts are established where, and how many aspirational districts fall under their future jurisdiction. The examiner's choice of questions is therefore not random — it reflects an expectation that successful candidates can navigate CG's administrative map from their first posting day.

This means: questions on administrative structure are unlikely to ever become purely theoretical. Even as administrative law evolves, the CGPSC will continue to test current and practical facts — current incumbent holders, current district count, current programme designations. Candidates must keep their preparation updated to within one year of the examination date.

Cross-Subtopic Linkages

This subtopic does not exist in isolation. It cross-links to several other CGPSC syllabus areas:

• Panchayati Raj institutions in CG — the relationship between Zila Panchayat and the Collector's district administration.
• Urban local bodies — municipal governance in district towns like Raipur (Nagar Nigam), Bilaspur (Nagar Nigam), and smaller urban local bodies (Nagar Palika, Nagar Panchayat) across district headquarters.
• State governance, departments, and flagship schemes — scheme implementation runs through the district Collector's office.
• Fifth Schedule and PESA — directly covered in this note; the tribal belt's administrative geography is inseparable from constitutional provisions.
• CG economy and industry — the aspirational districts are mostly mineral-rich but developmentally lagging, a paradox with deep economic geography dimensions.

A well-prepared candidate who masters this subtopic will find their preparation enriching all connected subtopics.

What Else Could Be Asked

Common Mistakes & Traps

Overview of Typical Error Patterns

The mistakes aspirants make on this subtopic divide broadly into two categories: factual staleness (using an outdated figure for districts, a previous Lokayukta, or a superseded programme count) and conceptual confusion (mixing up the powers or jurisdictions of different tiers). Both categories cost marks in CGPSC. Each mistake below is drawn from the logic of the PYQ set and from common patterns observed in how students approach administrative geography.

Mistake 1 — Assuming Raipur hosts the High Court. Raipur is the state capital, but the High Court of Chhattisgarh is at Bilaspur. This is one of the most common errors and a reliable distractor choice in CGPSC. The answer is simply Bilaspur — a legacy of Bilaspur's colonial-era status as the divisional headquarters and judicial centre.

Mistake 2 — Confusing the number of original districts with current count. CG began with 16 districts in 2000. Many candidates, especially those who studied older reference books, still cite 27 or 28. The current count is 33 districts (as of 2023 notifications). Failing to update for recent bifurcations in 2022–23 is a costly mistake.

Mistake 3 — Assuming Family Courts exist only in large cities. The 2023 PYQ was specifically designed to test this assumption. CG has extended Family Courts to virtually all district headquarters. Do not disqualify a district from having a Family Court just because it is small or tribal.

Mistake 4 — Mixing up Aspirational District counts. The 10-district figure for CG is fixed at programme launch (2018). Later developments — re-designation of some districts, creation of new districts splitting aspirational districts — can confuse students. The base figure to memorise is 10 at launch.

Mistake 5 — Treating Collector and DM as two separate officers. In CG (as in most Indian states), the Collector and District Magistrate is a single officer with two distinct functional personalities. Questions that ask about who controls law-and-order vs. revenue administration in a district have the same answer: the Collector/DM.

Mistake 6 — Confusing PESA Gram Sabha with the ordinary Panchayat Gram Sabha. Ordinary Gram Sabhas are elected bodies under the Panchayati Raj Act. PESA Gram Sabhas are convened for all adult village residents and possess mandatory-consultation/consent rights over land, minerals, and forest resources. Conflating the two in an essay or MCQ is a mark-losing error.

Mistake 7 — Memorising Lokayukta names without updating. The Lokayukta is a current-affairs post; incumbents change. Justice T.P. Sharma was the 2019 answer, but this post may have changed by the time of your examination. Always verify the current incumbent from the official CG government website or a reliable current-affairs digest.

Mistake 8 — Treating constituency boundaries as co-extensive with tehsil boundaries. Assembly constituency delimitation follows the Delimitation Commission's recommendations and does not follow tehsil or sub-division lines. A tehsil may be split across two constituencies, or a constituency may span two tehsils.

Mistake 9 — Ignoring the Board of Revenue. Many candidates learn the appeals chain as Tehsildar → SDM → Collector → Commissioner and stop there. The Board of Revenue above the Commissioner is a statutory body that exists in the chain and has been in CG since the state adopted the MP Land Revenue Code framework. Omitting it from essays or MCQ logic is an error.

Mistake 10 — Equating the Forest Rights Act process with the Revenue Mutation process. Forest Rights Act (FRA) title is granted through a separate three-tier process (Gram Sabha → SDLC → DLC) distinct from revenue mutation (which goes through Patwari → Tehsildar route). Both processes end with the Collector's involvement but are legally separate. Conflating them in an answer is a conceptual error that signals poor understanding of tribal area administration.

Memory Aids & Mnemonics

Why Mnemonics Matter for This Subtopic

Administrative geography and institutional facts — district counts, programme numbers, court locations — are exactly the kind of information that is accurate at one moment and stale the next. Mnemonics work here not because the facts change (they don't change every year) but because they help you retain verified, current facts under examination pressure. Use these mnemonics as anchors, not substitutes for understanding — always back each mnemonic with the conceptual knowledge of why the fact is what it is.

Mnemonic 1 — "BBSD" for the Four Senior Districts in Chronological Order

Remember the ascending chronological order of CG's oldest four districts as "BBSD" — Bilaspur, Bastar, Surguja, Durg. Read it as: "Big Beasts Stay Down" — Bilaspur and Bastar are the Big Beasts (oldest), Surguja Stays in third, and Durg comes Down at fourth. This maps directly to the CGPSC 2023 question's correct answer.

Mnemonic 2 — "TEN CANS" for the Ten Aspirational Districts

CG has 10 Aspirational Districts — a number to nail down with the phrase "TEN CANS":

• Ten districts (the count itself)
• CG has the most in India (at launch)
• All in tribal / resource-depleted belt
• NITI Aayog programme (2018)
• State's developmental challenge is real

The numeric anchor: 10 = CG's Aspirational Districts = India's highest state count at ADP launch.

For recall of the actual 10 names, use the BBNKK-DRS trick — Bastar, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Kanker (the five Bastar-belt districts) + Dantewada, Rajnandgaon, Sukma (plus two more: Korba and Dhamtari/Balrampur). The "5 Bastar + 5 others" mental partition helps avoid undercounting.

Mnemonic 3 — "CSTD" for Administrative Hierarchy Top-Down

The CG administrative hierarchy from top to bottom: Commissioner → Collector → SDM → Tehsildar → Patwari → DGram (village).

Rephrase as: "C-Suite Takes Precision Delivery" — Commissioner, (C)ollector, SDM, Tehsildar, Patwari, (D)elivery-to-village. Each level's first letter: C-C-S-T-P-D. The double C at the top signals the two senior tiers (Division and District) before sub-division kicks in.

Mnemonic 4 — "BHC" for High Court Location

The Bilaspur High Court — BHC. Short, direct, memorable. Bilaspur hosts the High Court; Raipur hosts the state capital — never reverse these.

Mnemonic 5 — "FIVE Divisions, THIRTY THREE Districts" — The Current Map in Numbers

"5-33-150+" — 5 divisions, 33 districts (current), 150+ tehsils. Lock these three numbers as a triplet. Any question that asks for the count of divisions, districts, or tehsils can be answered from this triplet. Write it in your notes three times: 5 — 33 — 150+.

For the divisions themselves: "Really Big Soldiers Drink Daily" — Raipur, Bilaspur, Surguja, Durg, Bastar. Wait — that gives only four distinct initials for five divisions (Bilaspur and Bastar both start with B). Use the full form: "Raipur, Bilaspur, Surguja, Bastar, Durg" — remember them as the three traditional regions of CG: Chhattisgarh Plains (Raipur + Durg), Coal Belt (Bilaspur), and Tribal Plateau (Surguja + Bastar).

Mnemonic 6 — The Five PVTGs of CG

CG's five Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups can be remembered with: "Before Kamla Paused, Abujh Birds Sang" — Baiga, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, Abujhmaria, Birhor. The initials are B-K-P-A-B. Alternatively, remember the key distinguishing characteristic: all five are found in the deep forests of Bastar (Abujhmaria, Kamar, Baiga) and the northern Surguja-Jashpur belt (Pahadi Korwa, Birhor).

Quick Revision

This section is your pre-examination checklist. Each bullet is a fact or concept that has been tested or is highly likely to be tested. Read through once daily in the two weeks before your exam. If you cannot recall any item, go back to the relevant section of this note.

State Formation: CG formed 1 November 2000 as India's 26th state, carved from MP; inherited 16 districts and 3 divisions.

Current districts: 33 (as of 2023 notifications); most recent additions — GPM (2020), Sarangarh-Bilaigarh, MCB, Shakti, Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki (2022), Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai (2023).

Current divisions: 5 — Raipur, Bilaspur, Surguja, Bastar, Durg.

Chronological order of senior districts: Bilaspur → Bastar → Surguja → Durg (ascending, i.e., oldest first).

High Court: at Bilaspur (not Raipur). Raipur is state capital; Bilaspur is judicial capital.

Aspirational Districts in CG: 10 (highest single-state count at ADP launch in 2018 by NITI Aayog).

Family Courts: Extended to virtually all district headquarters in CG, including Kanker, Balod, Janjgeer-Champa, Kabirdham.

Lokayukta: Established under the CG Lokayukta Evam Uplokayukta Adhiniyam, 2001; retired High Court/SC judge; Justice T.P. Sharma was the 2019 incumbent (verify current holder for each exam cycle).

Collector = DM: Single officer; dual hat — revenue (Collector) + executive magistracy (DM).

PESA Gram Sabha: Mandatory for tribal Scheduled Areas; consent/consultation rights over land, minerals, water bodies, markets; distinct from ordinary Panchayat Gram Sabha.

Fifth Schedule → TAC: Tribes Advisory Council, chaired by CM, 3/4 members from ST MLAs; advisory to Governor on tribal welfare.

PVTGs in CG: 5 — Baiga, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, Abujhmaria, Birhor.

Vidhan Sabha: 90 seats; 29 ST reserved, 10 SC reserved.

Administrative hierarchy: Division (Commissioner) → District (Collector/DM) → Sub-Division (SDM) → Tehsil (Tehsildar) → Patwari Circle (Patwari) → Revenue Village.

Key CGPSC PYQ takeaways:

• District chronological order = Bilaspur→Bastar→Surguja→Durg (2023).
• All four listed districts (Kanker, Balod, Janjgeer-Champa, Kabirdham) have Family Courts (2023).
• CG has 10 Aspirational Districts (2019).
• Lokayukta in 2019 = Justice T.P. Sharma (2019).

Revenue appeals chain: Tehsildar → SDM → Collector → Divisional Commissioner → Board of Revenue → High Court (writ).

Forest Rights Act (FRA, 2006): Collector chairs DLC; individual and community forest rights titles; three-tier process (Gram Sabha → SDLC → DLC); separate from revenue mutation process.

Fifth Schedule → Governor's role: Governor can modify/exclude application of central or state Acts to Scheduled Areas; must submit annual report to President; acts on TAC advice on tribal welfare.

PESA Gram Sabha vs. ordinary Gram Sabha: PESA = all adult village residents; mandatory consultation/consent on land, minerals, water, markets; stronger than ordinary Panchayat Gram Sabha.

TAC (Tribes Advisory Council): 3/4 members = ST MLAs; chaired by CM; advises Governor; mandatory in Fifth Schedule states.

PVTGs in CG: 5 — Baiga, Kamar, Pahadi Korwa, Abujhmaria, Birhor.

Current divisions (5): Raipur, Bilaspur, Surguja, Bastar, Durg.

Cadres in district administration: IAS (Collector, senior postings) + SAS (SDM, Deputy Collector) + Revenue Service (Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildar) + Revenue Subordinate (Patwari).

Mnemonics to retain:

• BBSD / "Big Beasts Stay Down" → district chronological order.
• BHC → Bilaspur High Court.
• TEN CANS → 10 Aspirational Districts, CG, NITI Aayog, 2018.
• C-C-S-T-P-D → administrative hierarchy top to bottom.
• 5-33-150+ → divisions, districts, tehsils current count.
• B-K-P-A-B → 5 PVTGs of CG.