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19. There were three deaths among the Deputy Inspectors of Vaccination in
the Central Range. One Deputy Inspector in the Northern Range was reduced
from the second to the third grade for falsification of diaries.
20. I have to add the following remarks regarding my office establishments :.
The ministerial staff is quite inadequate. The jurisdiction of each Deputy
Sanitary Commissioner extends over a third of the Presidency and in that vast
area he has to correspond with various classes of officers. The duties pertaining
to the office staff are varied and multifarious and have to be attended to by only
two clerks, one of whom has to accompany the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner on
his tours. A third clerk is absolutely and urgently necessary if the office work is
to be carried out well in all its details. Further the staff is distinctly underpaid.
The pay of the Head Clerks has been fixed at Rs. 45. The Head Clerk of Central
Range is a certificated Sanitary Inspector specially selected from among the
Sanitary Commissioner's office staff by Major Quirke, I.M.S., and the Head
Clerk of Northern Range is a fully qualified Sanitary Inspector with vaccination
training besides being an F.A. of the Madras University. The latter is my
own selection from the Health Department of the Corporation of Madras
and he is still continuing on the salary of Rs. 45 with which he was started,
although he has put in a satisfactory service of over five years. There appears
to be no use in his looking up to the Sanitary Commissioner's office in
accordance with G.O. No. 1653 L., dated 5th November 1912, for any increase of
salary.
Both are steady men of character and ability and over 35 years
of age. It is needless to say that their technical knowledge is very useful in
such an office as this. The post of the Head Clerk is very onerous and
responsible besides being one of trust. The pay was fixed at Rs. 45 when the
pay of the Deputy Inspectors of Vaccination ranged from Rs. 40 to Rs. 70.
Now that the pay of the Deputy Inspectors of Vaccination has been increased to
Rs. 50—100 it is essential that the pay of the chief ministerial officer of the
controlling office should be correspondingly increased in order to keep up the
prestige of the appointment. The minimum salary compatible with the onerous-
ness, responsibility, and trust of the appointment that can be suggested is
Rs. 70—4—90 as recently fixed for the post of the second clerk in the Sanitary
Commissioner's office.
The typists in both the offices are intermediate grade men who with the service
they have put in would have elsewhere received Rs. 30 per mensem instead of
Rs. 25 as they do here. Further the Northern Range typist is a qualified short-
hand writer and is a very efficient one at that. The usefulness of a shorthand
typist to a touring officer who has to turn out a large amount of inspection notes
cannot be overstated. Even with the aid of a shorthand typist that now works in
the office without remuneration for his shorthand work, I have to devote all my
morning hours to purely scriptory office work while at headquarters in spite of
the service rendered by the two head ministerial officers who are competent
Sanitary Inspectors. I would therefore request that the pay of the typists may be
fixed at Rs. 20—1—50 in accordance with G.O. No. 369, Financial, dated 4th May
1918, with a shorthand allowance of Rs. 10 in the case of qualified shorthand
writers.
In the circumstances detailed above the scale of the ministerial establishments
of the Deputy Sanitary Commissioners' offices may be revised as follows :—
One Head Clerk on Rs, 70—4—90.
One second clerk on Rs. 30—2—40.
One clerk on Rs. 25—1—30.
One typist on Rs. 20—1—50 according to grade with a shorthand allowance
of Rs. 10 in the case of qualified shorthand writers.
21. It is with pleasure that I once again record the good services rendered
by all the members of the ministerial staffs.
22. This report could not be submitted earlier as the statements regarding
the cost of vaccine supplied were received from the King Institute only on the
4th of June 1919.