Reply to Parliament question No.6584 – Anomaly in Stenographer Services

Questions: (a) whether there is a common examination for stenographer for recruitment in the Central Government Ministries and their subordinate offices conducted by Staff selection Commission: (b) If so, whether there is disparity in pay and cadres structure and promotional channel of stenographers of Central Secretariat Stenographer Services (CSSS) and subordinate officers and the stenographers in CSSS Cadres are promoted upto PB-4 whereas the stenographers in subordinate officers retire in PB-2 only. (c) If so, the details there of and the reasons therefore; (d) Whether the government proposes to restructure the service conditions of the stenographers of subordinate offices on the pattern of CSSS to remove this disparity; (e) If so, the details there of; and (f) If not, the measures taken by the government to rectify the anomaly existing in this regard? ANSWERS a) Yes. Sir b) & ( c) The cadre structure for stenographers in the Central Secretariat Stenographers Services (CSSS) which has promotional avenues upto PB-4 is based on the functional requirements in the participating Ministries/Departments. The Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) had studied the grade structure of stenographers in the offices outside the secretariat and had recommended corresponding revised pay scales upto Pay Band-2 only after merging the posts of Stenographer Grade I and II. In the CSSS, the cadre starts with PB-1 + Grade Pay of Rs.2400 and has posts upto PB-4+Grade pay of Rs.8700. In the subordinate offices, the lowest pay scale for stenographers is PB-1+Grade pay of Rs.2400 and the highest post of Senior Private Secretary is in PB-2+Grade Pay of 4800 and Grade Pay of Rs.5400 on completion of 4 years. d)and (e) There is no proposal before the Government in this regard. f). In view of answer to (b) and (c), question of anomaly does not arise.