Parity in Pay Scales between Assistants/Stenographers in field/subordinate offices and CSS Cadre: 7th CPC NAC Agenda

“Time had come to grant parity between similarly placed personnel employed in field offices and in the Secretariat and this parity would need to be absolute till the grade of Assistant”.

With this quote, the 7 CPC recommended the following:

“The Commission accordingly strongly recommends parity in pay between the field staff and head quarter staff upto the rank of Assistants on two grounds – firstly the field staff are recruited through the same exam and they follow the same rigours as the Assistants of CSS and secondly there is no difference in the nature of functions discharged by both…”.

Denial of the same pay scale to field offices as of those cadres upto Assistant SO in CSS is in violation of the principles enuciated by the 7 CPC that cadres and categories having similar recruitment qualifications must carry identical pay scales. This also is causes horizontal relativity between the pay sclaes of field level staff and those of CSS.

This recommendation need to be implemented in letter and spirit by granting the pay scale that Assistant Section Officers and Stenographers of CSS to Assistants and Stenographers of field offices so as to remove the anomaly.