Renaming of Office Superintendent as AO/SO in NSSO Offices and granting of Rs. 4800/ grade pay

No. 2/Assn/GS/2010 Bhopal, dated 10.06.10

To
Dr. Pronab Sen,
Secretary,
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation,
New Delhi.

Sub: Renaming of the Office Superintendent as Administrative Officer/
Section Officer in NSSO Offices and granting of Rs. 4800/ grade pay
accordingly.
Sir,

It is humbly submitted that we had sent letters of even number dated 17/4/2008, 11/12/2008 & 23/6/2009 to your office, requesting the upgradation of Pay Scale of the Office Superintendent of the NSSO Office to pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 7500-12000/ on the genuine grounds given therein. Accordingly, the Ministry vide letter No. A-11011/4/2009-Ad. III dated 18/8/2009 had directed all Divisional heads of the NSSO Offices to put up re-structuring proposals of the Ministerial Staff which include the specific direction to re-name the Office Superintendents as Section Officer in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 7500-12000 with grade pay 4800. But implementation of the same has not been taken place so far even after a lapse of long 10 months after the issuance of the said directive.

In this respect, the functioning of the Office Superintendent in NSSO Offices, as submitted to you vide this Association letter dated 23/6/2009 is re-produced below for reference please.

“The administrative Wing of the NSSO Offices, headed by the ISS Officers is practically working under Gazetted Office Superintendents who are solely responsible to supervise the entire Administrative work in the Regions of FOD & DPCs of DPD. In SDRD also there is no AO/Senior AO is posted and as such the OS has to look after the entire Administrative work there. These OS are reporting officers of the CRs of the Administrative Staff and in several of the Offices they are functioning as DDO as well. Person/posts shouldering identical duties in other Government of India Offices have been granted not less than 7500-12000 pre-revised pay scales where the Office Superintendents/Head Clerk are only assisting them in the day to day administrative work. This has happened due to non-conducting of periodical cadre review of Ministerial posts in NSSO Offices since its inception.
Sixth pay Commission, after studying the existing Ministerial posts, its pay structures and responsibility attached with the same thoroughly, has arrived in the conclusion that the posts holding the pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 5000-8000, 5500-9000 & 6500-10500 are doing identical work (primary supervisory work) in Government of India Offices and accordingly recommended to merge these scales by granting Rs. 4200 grade pay. Unlike in other Government of India Offices, the Office Superintendent with 5500-9000 and AO with 6500-10500 in NSSO offices are doing highly responsible and decision taking functioning. It means the pre-revised pay scale of the OS and AO in NSSO offices in comparison to other Government of India Offices were not at par with the responsibility assigned to them”.
In the mean time FOD has given promotions to UDC with 2400/ grade pay to Assistant with 4200 grade pay on regular basis against the vacancies of the Office Superintendent after down-grading the post to Assistant. It is evident that unlike in any other Government of India Departments, the down gradation of a highly responsible Gazetted post to the post of Assistant has arisen because of the reason that the pay scale granted to the Office Superintendent in NSSO Offices so far was not according to the status and responsibility entrusted to them. Or it is the direct fall out of the systematic denial of a justifiable pay scale appropriate to the status and the heavy responsibilities of the Office Superintendents in NSSO Offices.
This Association was aware of the fact and as such we had put up an anomaly case for the up gradation of the pay scales of these posts to 7500-12000/ during the fifth CPC which was not considered due to the non conduct of anomaly committee meeting by the Department even after our repeated requests. After 6th Pay Commission also, we tried to bring the seriousness of the matter to you through our aforesaid letters so that the down gradation of the posts can be avoided.
As on date there is effectively no supervisory officer posted in the Administrative section of any of the FOD Regions except two-three Regions situated in some Zonal Hqrs. Field officers have been given additional duty of the Administrative Section in several of the Regions. Since these field officers are not aware of the administrative work and procedures, the meager Ministerial Staff posted in these offices are overburdened with the entire responsibilities of the administration.
As regards the filling up of the vacancies of the Office Superintendent in DPD & SDRD are concerned, the DPD Hqrs has already sent a proposal seeking permission to fill up these posts with Rs. 4600/ grade pay as an interim measure. It is worth mention here that the DPD vide letter No. A-13012/4/2009-CSW dated 25.02.2010 had suggested the post of Section Officer with grade pay 4800 in place of the existing post of Office Superintendent and AAO.
Sir, NSSO Offices, especially the field offices face tremendous problem due to not posting of responsible Administrative/Section officers there. It is our humble submission that necessary action may be taken immediately to solve this problem.
Your personal intervention on the matter is requested please.

Yours faithfully

(T.K.R. Pillai)
General Secretary