How to Become a BDO (Block Development Officer)

Are you the one who is searching for a guiding article on how to become a BDO officer of a block? If yes, then go through this article and get all the information regarding the detailed information of a BDO.

The article will brief you in detail about the process, responsibilities, age limit to become a BDO Officer, and also the criteria to crack this exam. The aspiring candidates who want to become a BDO officer should first understand who is a BDO Office, what is his position in the district administration?

The most important part the candidates want to know is the salary of a BDO Officer. This article has covered detailed information on the Salary of a BDO. Keep reading the article till the end to know all about it. Also, at the end of the article I have revealed all the secret tips to crack the BDO exam, do not miss it. Stay Tuned!

Who is BDO

Before moving ahead to know the procedure to become a BDO, let us first know who is a BDO Officer. A BDO is responsible for the development of a district under which the blocks are mentioned. Block is the administrative division that is in the charge of a BDO Officer. They look into the planning of the block or take proper charge of that. Also, they are given the full charge of that respective block.

BDO officers are the ones who give permission for the construction of roads or railways in that particular block & the work gets implemented after the BDO approval. They work for the public need and try to fulfill their requirement. A BDO officer is responsible for Public Welfare and works for the betterment of the public. The position of a BDO is reputed in that particular State & also District.

Full Form of BDO 

Block Department Officer is abbreviated as BDO. They work for the welfare of the people in the development of the district. A BDO Officer focuses on the enhancement of the block with cooperation with other employees in the department.

How to Become a BDO

To become a BDO, you need to crack the Public Civil Service Exam (PCS) conducted by each respective State every year. To apply for this exam you need to at least be 21 years & must have completed the graduation degree in any field from a recognized university.

To become a Block Development Officer you must qualify the eligibility criteria – Citizenship, age criteria, educational qualification. With these eligibility criteria’s a candidate can apply for the BDO Entrance Exam. After cracking the entrance the candidate becomes a BDO of that specific block. Now let us have a look at the necessary eligibility criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

The eligibility criteria to become a BDO are listed below.

Citizenship

•  The candidate should be a citizen of India, Nepal, and Bhutan 
•  Refugees who are not given the certificate of permanent residents of India and came to India before January 1962 can also apply for this exam.

Age Limit

The candidate to become a BDO Officer should at least be 21 years of age. The age limit differs according to the category.

Category	Age Limit	Relaxation
General	32	No
SC/ST	37	5 years
OBC	35	3 years
Disabled/Handicapped	42	10 years

General Category

The aspirant must be a minimum of 21-32 years those who are from the General category. There is no relaxation for the candidate belonging to the General Category.

SC/ST Category

For SC/ST there are five years of relaxation till 37 years.

OBC Category

For OBC the age limit is 35 years with three years of relaxation.

Disabled/Handicapped

For those who are Disabled Physically the age limit is 42 years with 10 years of relaxation. 

Educational Qualification

The applicant needs to complete 12th from any authorized board from any stream and have completed Bachelor’s degree or graduated from an authorized university. Even the candidate who has a Master’s Degree can apply for such an exam & become a BDO Officer.

Points to be Noted

How to Apply for BDO

If you are the one you are interested to be a BDO then you should follow these steps to apply for such exams. The steps are listed below.

Step 1: The candidate needs to check the official website of their respective state whether the BDO post is out or not. 

Step 2: Once the form is out you can apply for the post depending upon the eligibility criteria. If the criteria are fulfilled then it’s a golden opportunity for you to get enrolled in this entrance exam. 

Step 3: While applying the form certain things are asked and then it is compulsory for the candidate to fulfill the requirement. They ask for a passport size color photo, 10th, 12th, Bachelor degree certificate, and digital signature too.

Step 4: After you upload all the required information you have to pay the fee for the entrance exam and submit the form. 

Step 5: The candidate needs to keep a printout of the same for reference in the future in case needed.

Step 6: On the respective website, you will find out the examination date. 

Step 7: Download the hall ticket which is important to enter into the examination center.

What is PSC 

The Public Civil Service Exam is abbreviated as PCS. Every State in India conducts its exam through PCS only. The pattern of the State Public Service Commission is the same as that of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). They just differ in their difficulty level.

The State Government is responsible to choose a BDO through this particular examination. In India, almost every state conducts the public service commission examination every year to recruit the SDO. Each state has a different exam to recruit BDO’s.

The exam has three stages that are listed below.

1. PSC Preliminary Exam

2. PSC Mains Exam

3. PSC Interview Process

Each one is described below.

1. PSC Preliminary Exam 

• Prelims Exam divided into two papers is General Studies Paper-1 and 2.
• General Paper- 1 is of 100 questions and Paper-2 has 80 questions. 
• Both the papers are of 200 marks.
• The time Duration for both the paper is two hours.

Papers	Duration	Marks	Negative marking
General Studies -1	Two hours	200	1/3rd of the mark is cut in each wrong answer.
General Studies -2	Two hours	200	1/3rd of the mark is cut in each wrong answer.

Syllabus 

The syllabus for both the papers of the Preliminary exam is listed below.

Paper 1	Indian History General Science Indian Politics Current Events General Issues Indian Geography World Geography Social Development Economic Development
Paper 2	Communicational Skills Intrapersonal Skills English Skills English Comprehension Language skill that is chosen by the candidate Decision-making skills Problem-solving ability Mental Ability Basic Numeracy

General Studies Paper-1 

To prepare for such an exam the candidate must be aware of the syllabus and should know which topic they should pick and which one they should avoid. 

Here is the list of syllabus and you should thoroughly go through it.

• Indian Politics consists of the Indian Constitution and the political system.
• International Relation of the world and the other institution which is based on International prospective.
• Indian Geography which has economical, social and physical Geography.
• Statistics consists of graphical and diagrammatical questions.
• India and the world based on both external and internal security.
• Science and Technology field including space and basic computer also.
• Some of the topics on present issues are also focused on corruption, adult literacy, Democracy, ecology, human rights, and many more.

General Studies Paper-2

It includes Reasoning, Aptitude, logical reasoning, English Comprehension and decision making, and many more.

This is a qualifying paper whose marks will not get added to the prelims result. For qualifying, the candidate needs to score 33% out of the total.

2. PSC Mains Exam

The mains exam has eight papers in total with three hours each. Each paper is of 200 marks.

Papers	Marks	Duration
English	100	3 hours
Hindi	100	3 hours
General Studies -1	250	3 hours
General Studies – 2	250	3 hours
General Studies – 3	250	3 hours
General Studies – 4	250	3 hours

Syllabus

In the Essay paper, there are three sets of topics containing in each section. Chose one topic from the respective sections and the word limit is 700 to write each topic.

In Hindi, Paper questions are based on prefix and suffix, spelling correction, telegram writing, and many more. It consists of 50 marks.

General Studies 1 : Indian Heritage & Culture

• Indian Culture
• Modern Indian History
• History of the world
• Society
• Geography
• Events, Forms, and Effects on Society

General Studies 2: Indian Constitution & Indian Politics

• The Constitution Of India
• Amendment Procedure
• The Political System
• Central Government And Administration
• The Electoral Process
• Administrative Law
• Central And State Government Privileges
• Public Services
• Social Welfare And Social Legislation
• Control over Public Expenditure

General Studies 3: Science & Technology

• Energy
• Computer and Information Technology
• Biotechnology
• Disaster Management
• Nuclear Policy Of India
• Space Technology
• Environment
• Security
• Agriculture
• Economy

General Studies 4: Ethics & Human Interface

• Ethics and Human Interface
• Aptitude
• Attitude
• Integrity
• Emotional Intelligence
• Public Service Values And Ethics in Public Administration
• Probity in Governance

Optional Papers

The candidate needs to choose their optional paper carefully. A lot depends on your choice of optional paper. The subject of your choice & area of your interest. There are two optional Papers. The candidate can choose their mains paper out of the 29 subjects according to their choice.

There are few subjects which should not be chosen together. You can go through the list and choose your paper wisely. The list of those papers is listed below.

• Public administration with Political Science
• Punjabi literature with English, Sanskrit, or Hindi literature
• Electrical Engineering with Mechanical and Civil Engineering
• Veterinary Service following Animal Husbandry with Agriculture 
• Agriculture with Animal husbandry and veterinary service.

3. PSC Interview

This is the final round of the exam. Once this round is clear your name will be displayed on the website. During the review subject knowledge, personal skills, as well as Mental Ability, is tested. In the interview, only academics knowledge is not tested but the personality test is all about how much the candidate is alert and all aware of the events happing around.

The total mark for the interview process is 150 marks. After cracking the final round of interviews a candidate is qualified to become a BDO officer. He is given training and then posted according to the requirements. After qualifying the interview round the candidate is posted as a BDO in that particular block of the district.

Syllabus

The candidate needs to be prepare from every perspective to clear the Interview from current affairs, mental ability to many more topics. The interview is nothing but a Personality Test. Even current affairs and General knowledge questions can be asked for an interview.

Books & Study Material

For this, the candidate needs to study NCERT books from classes 6 to 12. Also, you can refer to the books that are listed below.

• You can follow Laxmikant for Polity
• GC Leon for geography
• Spectrum for Indian history

Along with all these, you have to follow state-orientated books to update yourself about the state’s currently happening. Reading Newspaper every day is compulsory along with that some magazines like Chronicle or Kurukshetra should be followed by the student. Hindu newspaper, Jagran Josh, Economic Times, & Indian Express is something I would suggest to enhance your general knowledge and current affairs.

Also, Read

• How to become IPS an Officer
• How to Become a Collector
• How to become an IAS Officer

Role & Responsibilities of BDO 

A BDO has a lot of responsibilities to handle a block. Each responsibility needs to carry out properly without any restrictions or limitations.

Some of the responsibilities and role of BDO is mentioned below.

• They need to check or cross verify the program presented by the respective authority. 
• An BDO Officer plays a vital role in the growth & development of that particular block.
• He/She is the one who approves all the documents or letters or contracts and on behalf of Panchayat. 
• The money from the fund of the Panchayat Samiti is drawn by the BDO
• He/She crosses verify the financial position with the levy of tax or loan and look into the financial accounts of the Panchayat Samiti
• He/She acts as a supervisor for the other employee who works in Panchayat Samiti
• The annual Budget is presented by BDO to the Panchayat Samiti
• He/She is responsible to submit all the reports of fraud, robbery, theft, and any such issues to the Panchayat. 

Salary of BDO

A BDO Salary differs from block to block. The basic pay scale is Rs. 9,300/- to Rs. 34,800/- with some extra perks & allowances. The salary increases gradually with time up to the age of 60 years. 

Tips to Crack PSC Exam

PSC Exam is a competitive exam. You have to prepare well to crack it. Proper guidance and dedication with hard work will make you an SDO. Hereby I am sharing some tips to crack PSC Exam. The tips are as listed below:

• Proper Guidance and knowledge of syllabus for the exam.
• Enhance your General Knowledge and Current Affairs. Reading the newspaper regularly.
• Good prior hand preparation for the exam with a proper set timetable.
• Divide the timings properly amongst all the subjects.
• A good habit of making short notes and referring them at the time of the exam.
• Solving more and more MCQs and last year’s question papers.

Conclusion

To conclude, this was all about How to become a BDO. Now with this guiding direction, you can easily start with your preparation for a BDO. I have shared a simple guide on BDO with all the necessary details. Yet if you require any more related details ask me by commenting in the comment box. You will get my instant response in the form of an answer.

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