§ SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGEI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether the actual salary of the Rai Radhika Prasanna Mukarji, Bahadur, formerly a Deputy Inspector of Schools in the subordinate education service of Bengal, who was promoted to be an Inspector of Schools in the superior or graded service for long and exceptionally meritorious work, was the ordinary salary of the grade to which he was promoted; will he state what is the amount of 1896 the annual yearly increment of salary in that grade, to which every European officer so appointed is entitled; what amount of annual yearly increment of salary was recommended by the Director of Public Instruction to be granted to the Rai Bahadur; what amount was actually sanctioned for him; and how much less has he received, in consequence of these orders, since his promotion, than what he would have received if he had been a European officer?
MR. CURZONA European appointed by the Secretary of State as Inspector of Schools in the graded service receives Rs.500 a month, rising annually by Rs.50 a month to Rs.750. A native receives under the rules two-thirds of these amounts—namely, Rs.333, rising to Rs.500. The Rai Bahadur, a Deputy Inspector of Schools, was receiving Rs.460 a month when promoted, and he continued to draw that amount after promotion, with a special annual increase of Rs.10 a month for every year in the graded service. The recommendation of the Director General of Education was that natives promoted to the graded service, instead of coming under the two-thirds rule, should rise on the same scale as Europeans to the third grade, but should be ineligible for promotion to the second or first grades; but this plan was not adopted. The officer in question appears to be drawing Rs.570 a month. A European, appointed at the same time, would be drawing the maximum of Rs.750.
§ SIR ROPER LETHBRIDGEArising out of that answer, I should like to ask the hon. Gentleman if the Secretary of State will take the opinion of the Local Authorities as to the advisability of granting this exceptionally meritorious officer the same terms as he would have obtained if he had been a European officer?