CO882-10 — Page 311

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

I l k k T

Reference :-

CO. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSIÓN OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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49. The remaining proposals of the Commission call for no special remark, and I agree with them subject to the following minor modifications :---

Cultivation Officer, Mannar.

50. The salary drawn by the present officer (Rs. 1200 per annum) was based on that of a Chief Headman, and I would therefore place him personally on the salary of a Class III Mudaliyar-viz., Rs. 2400 per annum. A general scheme for appointment of Cultivation Officers throughout the Island is under considera- tion, and the salary of the post at Mannar should be reconsidered with reference thereto on the occurrence of a vacancy.

51.

Shorthand Typist, Batticaloa.

The salary of Rs. 2520, proposed by the Commission, is based on the amount entered in the current estimates as the subtantive salary of the post. This amount was originally proposed by the Government Agent, but, when the appointment was made some months later, Government decided that the salary should be Ra. 1,140-60-1,580, and I recommend that this scale be substituted for that proposed by the Commission.

Salt Establishment.

:

52. The Commission has omitted to propose salaries for these officers, who are detailed under Head 8: Provincial Administration on pages 14 to 19 of the Current Estimates. On inquiry it appears that rates for these officers were duly settled by the Commission, but that they were inadvertently left out of the report. These rates, which have been verified by the Hon. Dr. H. M. Fernando, are set out below, together with the present rates:-

Rs.840-38-1,200

Rs.600-30-720

Class.

Number of

Present Salary.

appointments.

Special

2

Rs. 1,680-120-2,520

I

4

II

8

III

12

Constables

Class I

8

Class II

7

Rs.420-30-540

Rs.396 Rs.240

Proposed Salary.

Rs. 2,400-120-3,600 Rs.1,200-60-1,800

Bs.900-36-1,080 R8,600-36-780

Rs.360-24-600 Eff. Bar

before Rs. 504 53. The proposed scales are fair, and I recommend them for adoption subject to one slight modification, viz., that the increment in Classes II and III be raised from Rs. 36 to Rs. 48 in keeping with the similar alteration I have proposed in the case of the Subordinate Clerical Service and other similar groups (vide paragraphs 34 and 36). Incidentally this alteration would enable these officers to reach their new maximum in the same time as at present. The scales for Classes II and III, so revised, would be:-

Class II-Rs. 888-48-1,080,

Class III-Rs. 600-48-792.

54.

Head 9: Land Settlement Department. Additional Assistant Settlement Officers.

The salaries proposed for these officers only give them an increase of 31 per cent. on their present substantive salary, as against e.g., 41 per cent. to the Civil Service at a corresponding stage. One of them, Mr. N. A. Hampton, who was previously in the Survey Department, could hardly have failed, had he remained in that Department, to be now well up in the Assistant Superintendent of Surveys' grade. Both the Surveyor-General and the Settlement Officer consider that a suit- able scale for these officers would be that proposed for the Assistant Superintendents of Surveys, and accordingly I recommend that Mr. Toller be placed on the scale of £400---25 and 10-810, and that Mr. Hampton, who is a Rupee Officer entitled to an exchange rate of 1s. 104d. for leave and pension, be placed on a similar scale with a lower maximum, viz., Rs. 6,000-375-11,250.

Subsistence Allowance of Settlement Officer and Assistant Settlement Officers.

55. The question of these allowances was considered by me in Executive Council so lately as 1920, when it was decided, after very careful and exhaustive consideration, that the present allowances were necessary. I do not agree, there- fore, with the recommendation of the Salaries Commission, and would recommend that these allowances continue as at present.

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Draughtsmen.

56. The revised scales proposed for the Public Works Department Draughts- men are applicable to these also. The scales are as follows:-

10 at Rs. 900-120-2,820 (halts of two years on Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,100 with

Efficiency Bars before Rs. 1,620 and Rs. 2,220).

Head 10: Survey Department.

57. I concur in the recommendations of the Commission subject to the follow- ing modifications:-

58.

Deputy Surveyor-General and Assistant Surveyor-General.

After considering representations made by the Surveyor-General, I con- sider that the salaries proposed for these officers, viz.,

Deputy Surveyor General-£1,050-50-1300,

Assistant Surveyor General-£840-40-1,040

have been fixed on too low a scale, and therefore recommend that they be altered as follows:-

Deputy Surveyor General-£1,150-50-1,300,

Assistant Surveyor General-£920-(40, 1 of 20)-1,100.

Royal Engineer Assistant Superintendents of Surveys.

59. (vide paragraph 146 of the report)-The Hon. Dr. H. M. Fernando has, since the report was presented to Government, written to say that the Commission's recommendation that these officers be placed on the same scale as the other Assistant Superintendents of Surveys was based on a misapprehension of their status and work, and has recommended a scale of £450-25-600 for these officers. This would give them an increase of 60 per cent. on their present salaries, which I consider sufficient, and accordingly recommend the scale suggested by Dr. H. M. Fernando for your approval.

Grade Surveyors.

60. The present scale of Grade I Surveyors is Rs. 3,180 to Rs. 3,900 by annual increments of Rs. 180, and to Rs. 4,440 by further increments of Rs. 180 after passing the senior examination and remaining three years on Rs. 3,900. I would continue this feature in connection with the new scale proposed for this grade. by providing that a Grade I Surveyor who has passed his senior examination, but is not considered fit for promotion to the Assistant Superintendents' grade, should, after completing a year's service on the proposed maximum of Rs. 6,000 per annum, be allowed two more increments, one of Rs. 180 and one of Rs. 240, bringing his salary up to a maximum of Rs. 6,420.

61. As regards Grade II. Surveyors, although the Commission has increased the number of posts in Grade I from 15 to 30, this cannot confer any practical benefit on the existing officers so long as the present regulations governing promotion to this grade remain in force. Under these rules no surveyor can be promoted to Grade I until he has served a year on the maximum of Grade II, or has passed the senior examination and has served for seven years in Grade II. On the exist- ing scale a Grade II surveyor can reach the maximum of that grade in his eleventh year of service in the grade, but under the scale suggested by the Commission he will not reach the new maximum till the sixteenth year-hence the prospect of pro- motion to Grade I is more distant than ever, and the proposed increase of the number of posts in Grade I from 15 to 30 will only increase the existing vacancies in that grade from 5 to 20. To remedy this state of affairs I would recommend that the posts in Grade I and Grade II combined should not exceed 80, and that the numbers in the respective grades be fixed in the ratio of 8:5 (to be maintained by annual revision), which, on the present numbers in these grades, would give 18 in Grade I and 27 in Grade II. I would also vary the rule governing promo- tion as follows:-

Promotion to Grade I to be solely on merit and subject to the following con- ditions:-

(I.) that there is a vacancy in Grade I,

(II) that the officer selected has either (a) passed an efficiency bar, which I would fix before Rs. 3,900, the eleventh increment on the Commission's scale, so that it might be possible for a surveyor to obtain promotion to Grade I after the same number of years in Grade II as it takes him under the existing scale, or (b) that he