Sr. Section Officer/Sr. Travelling Inspector of Accounts/Sr. Inspector of Stores Accounts to get higher grade pay – 7th CPC Recommendations

7th CPC recommends higher grade pay for Sr. Section Officer/Sr. Travelling Inspector of Accounts/Sr. Inspector of Stores Accounts

7th Pay Commission has recommended higher grade pay for Sr. Section Officer/Sr. Travelling Inspector of Accounts/Sr. Inspector of Stores Accounts.
Accounts

The employees of Accounts Department maintain the books of accounts and render financial advice. The cadre structure is as follows:

Direct entry to the cadre is at the levels of Accounts Clerk (AC) and Junior Accounts Assistant (JAA). The stipulated minimum qualification for direct recruitment at AC level is Class X along with typing speed of at least 30 words per minute, while that for the level of JAA is Graduation. Accounts Clerks are also promoted to JAAs after qualifying an examination (referred to in the Railways as “Appendix IIA” examination). This examination is held at the level of the Railway Zones. The residency period for JAAs is three years after which they are promoted to Accounts Assistants (AAs).To move upwards to the next level (which consists of Senior Section Officer/Senior Travelling Inspector of Accounts/Inspector of Stores Accounts), AAs have to qualify an All India level examination (called “Appendix IIIA”) for which ACs, JAAs as well as AAs are all eligible. This exam is centrally conducted by the Ministry of Railways and is rather stringent.

Representations received from this cadre bring out a peculiar problem: Subsequent to the acceptance of the VI CPC recommendations, there are several cases of a junior drawing higher GP than the senior. An example has been proffered to highlight the situation. Senior S joined service as AC in 1981, while Junior J joined service at the same level of AC in 1986. Both cleared the Appendix IIA examination after four years in service and were promoted to JAA in 1985 and 1990 respectively. After putting in one more year of service, i.e., in 1986 and 1991 respectively, both cleared the Appending IIIA examination and were waiting for their postings as SSO. However there was no vacancy of SSO from 1986 to 1990 and S got promoted to AA in 1989 (i.e., after completion of residency period of three years). Later, when vacancies of SSO arose in 1992, both S and J were promoted as SSO. Ten years down the line, both were considered for an upgrade under MACP. However, since S had already availed of three promotions, he was ineligible for upgradation under the MACP scheme and remained in GP 4800, but since J had received only two promotions, he was upgraded to GP 5400 (PB-2) through MACP. This has resulted in a situation wherein junior is placed in a higher GP than the senior purely on circumstantial grounds. It is reported that there are about 250 such cases.

Analysis and Recommendations

The Commission finds merit in the contention that the above has led to an anomalous situation. It is therefore recommended that in cases where a senior employee has cleared both Appending IIA and Appending IIIA examinations before the junior, and purely through circumstances the junior is drawing higher GP, the anomaly should be fixed by stepping up the pay of the senior employee vis-à-vis the junior, and then fixing the senior employee in the Pay Matrix.

In  line with  our  recommendations  for  organised  Accounts  cadres,  it  is  further recommended that employees in GP 4800 should be upgraded, on completion of four years’ service, to the existing GP 5400 (PB-2), viz., Level 9 in the pay matrix, on a non- functional basis.

Also checkout following for more topic wise details on 7th Pay Commission Report

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Download 7th CPC Report