ORGANISATION, FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES
Organisation

1.1 The Department of Economics & Statistics is now organized as a full-fledged major department functioning as the apex body in the Official Statistical System in the state under the administrative control of Planning & Programme Implementation Department, Government of Mizoram.

1.2 The Directorate of Economics & Statistics is the head office headed by a full-fledged Director drawn from the service of ‘Mizoram Planning, Economics & Statistical Service (MPE&SS), Mizoram. He is assisted by Joint Director in all administration and technical matters.

1.3 Under the direct supervision of the Director, the Directorate is further organized into four different wings viz. (i) Establishment (ii) Technical
(iii) National Sample Survey (iv) Registration of Births & Deaths. Each wing is headed by a Deputy Director and assisted by other officers such as Research Officer/Superintendent and other supporting staff.

1.4 There are ,at present, three District Offices headed by District Research Officers. Out of the total eight districts in Mizoram District office existed only in the erstwhile district of Aizawl (Undivided), Lunglei and Saiha (Undivided). District Offices in the remaining five districts is yet to take shape.

1.5 At the Block level, one Inspector of Statistics in every Rural Development Block is posted in the office of Block Development Officer. They are the main Statistical Agency at the Block level to improve the system of statistical records at village level, quality of information and timeliness in submission of reports and returns.

1.6 At present, there are also 19 (nineteen) statistical cells functioning in different departments under the State Government with a total of approximately 124 statistical personnel to provide the necessary statistical support to the office to which they are posted. All these posts belong to a common cadre, wherby, Director, Economics & Statistics is the appointing authority for all the non-gazzetted posts and Commissioner, Planning & Programme Implementation Department, Government of Mizoram is the appointing authority for all Gazzetted officers.

Function & Duties
1.7 Directorate: The major function of Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Mizoram is coordination of statistical activities in the State, undertaking various kinds of Surveys and Census (including Nation-wide Survey & Censuses) to provide basic data required for various sectors of the economy, for estimating State Income and to fill the large gaps in the data essential for formulating effective economic plans. It is mainly engaged in collecting and generating official statistical on a number of variables of relevance to States and Central Government for the purpose of developmental planning programmes and policies and for various official uses and records. Data on various socio-economic activities of the state are processed, analysed and published from time to time.

1.8 Directorate of Economics & Statistics also maintains liaison with Central Statistical Organisation, National Sample Survey Organisation in the Central Government and Statistical Cell/Wing in various department under the State Government. Since all statistical staff are placed under one common cadre Directorate of Economics & Statistics act as the appointing authority for all statistical staff posted in different departments of the State Government.

1.9 For the purpose of discharging different duties the Directorate have been grouped into different wings. Main functions and duties of these wings are as follows :

(i) National Sample Survey

The National Sample Survey set up in 1950, re-organised and brought under a unified control in 1971 undertakes a large scale country-wide socio-economic survey employing scientific sampling method.
Government of Mizoram is also participating in this National Sample Survey through this Directorate since 1978 under Centrally Sponsored Scheme on the basis of 75:25 funding matching share.
In every round of survey (one round is generally of 12 months duration) detail enquiry on different socio-economic aspects are conducted in selected Sample Villages/Blocks consisting of Central Samples as well as State Samples under the technical guidance of Field Operation Division of NSSO, Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of India.
For every new round of survey, training for field operation are held in two stages at National Level and Regional Level. Supervisory and field level officials are imparted training in accordance with the Instruction Manual to Field Staff on Design, Concept, Definitions and Procedures prepared and published by NSSO separetely for each round of survey.
The Schedules of enquiry in every round of survey consist of two samples i.e. Central Sample and State Sample. Filled-in-schedule in respect of central samples are despatched to NSSO Hqrs. for their onward processing and tabulation for which report of the survey are brought out at a regular interval from time to time. State Sample Schedules are retained within the state to be processed and tabulated by the State Government. Mention may be made with a note of regret that processing of State Sample data could not be done due to absence of Computerised System hitherto and that state sample report could not be brought out till today. However, after much effort, necessary computer is now installed in the Directorate Office, system of processing and tabulation is now beginning to take concrete shape.

(ii) Registration of Births & Deaths

In Mizoram, the Economics & Statistics Department has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the RBD Act. The Secretary Planning Department, Govt. of Mizoram is the Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths, and the Director of Economics & Statistics is the Additional Chief Registrar and acts as the functional head of the Civil Registration system. The Civil Registration is the handi work of inter-department in Mizoram. Therefore, Inter Departmental Co-ordination Committee is the highest authority in the Civil Registration System in Mizoram.
At present, the whole of Mizoram is covered by 698 Registrars of Births and Deaths, whose area of jurisdiction are specifically defined. The Registrars are mostly appointed from amongst the Primary School Teachers and they submit montly returns on Births and Deaths directly to the office of the Additional Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths with a copy to the office of the District Registrar. The returns are compilled, tabulated and published in the Annual Report on the working of RBD.
Registers of Births and Deaths submitted by Registrar of Births and Deaths are maintained in three offices namely the Assistant District Registrar and District Research Officer, Lunglei for Lunglei District and Assistant District Registrar and District Research Officer, Chhimtuipui for Chhimtuipui District. Registers of Births and Deaths for undivided Aizawl District is maintained at the office of the Additional Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths. Occassional reference are made to these Registers when search has to be made on event registered.
As prescribed by the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 and the corresponding State Rules events of Births and Deaths reported after 30 days but within one year of occurance are registered with prior permission of the Additional Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths and on payment of late fee of Rs. 5/- (Rupees five) only. Event reported after one year of occurance are registered only with written permission from Magistrate 1st Class designated for the purpose on payment of late fee of Rs. 10/- (Rupees ten) only. Event reported after 20 days but within 30 days from the date of occurance are registered by the Registrar with late fee of Rs.2/- (Rupees two) only.
Annual Training of Registrar of Births and Deaths is organised towards the end of the year to convey important information to Registrars and to solve problems faced by them. Participation on the part of local Registrar in these training are upto the mark with around 90% in every training. The training were held at all District Headquarters. This Annual training is further utilised for distribution of registration materials for the next Calendar Year and receipts of Registers of Births and Deaths beyond 12 months from Registrars pertaining to the period.
In respect of publicity measures adequate publicity was made on the importance of civil registration. Advertisements were released to daily newspapers and periodicals in local language. Discussion on the subject was broadcast in the air through All India Radio Aizawl Station and short play highlighting the system of registration was acted on Doordarshan. Hoardings were erected at all District Capitals. Village criers cried out the duties of the head of household in reporting of Vital events. In localities where village criers are not available, non-government organisation like Young Mizo Association or Village Council took up the responsibility of informing public the importance of reporting vital events to the Registrar.

(iii) Nation-wide Surveys & Census :
Directorate of Economics & Statistics also undertake and participate in some important nation-wide survey on a regular basis from time to time e.g. Agricultural Census and Economic Census.

(a) Agricultural Census and Input Survey : Government of India has been conducting Agricultural Censuses at five year interval regularly since 1970-71 as part of the World Census of Agriculture undertaken by the FAO of United Nations. This Census followed by Input Survey provides vital information about structural aspects of Indian Agriculture which is the backbone of Indian economy. Directorate of Economics & Statistics, is the implementing agency at the state level. The primary fieldwork, which consist of collecting information in respect of resident cultivators in the sampled villages are done by statistical staff of Directorate as well as District Office. Supervision are also done by Senior Statistical Staff.

(b) Economic Census : With a view to fill up the data gaps especially in the unorganized segments of different sectors of the economy, country wide Economic Census have been conducted at regular interval. This census is organised and implemented in collaboration with State Government wherein Directorate of Economics & Statistics are the implementing agency at the state level.
Economic Census is the official count of all entreprenunial units located within the geographical boundaries of the country, involved in any economic activity (agriculture and non agriculture). The Gigantic task of imparting training at State and District level and every field work is taken up by this Directorate. It coordinates and monitor the field works by appointing enumerator for all urban blocks and census villages and supervised the work by deploying statistical staff at Directorate and District Offices. The filled in Schedules are collected and compiled in a manner that suits the requirement of the data processing centre.

(iv) TECHNICAL WING:

This is the wing where all other works such as collection of information and generating of official statistics on an inumerable number of variable relevance to state and Central Government other different organisations agencies are wrapped up. The main function is collection of data, compilation, scrutiny and tabulation and subsequent publication for various uses. Collection of datas are done through various census, surveys report and returns. The wing is further disaggregated into different section where either Research Officer or Asst. Research Officer / Statistical Officer are held responsible for all activities within their respective sections.

The main duties and functions of different sections under Technical Wing are briefly as follows :
(a) Price & Marketing Intelligence : The main activities of this section is to study the price situation in Mizoram for this purpose weekly retail prices of consumption goods on 288 items are collected from selected towns viz. Serchhip, Kolasib, Champhai and Mamit.
Besides, Wholesale Prices of some Essential Commodities and farm Harvest Price are also collected on monthly basis from selected shops at Aizawl Centre. These information are compiled and published regularly.

(b) State Income : This section is entrusted with the task of preparing the estimates of GSDP and NSDP with the Base Year 1993-94 in line with the concept, coverage and Methodology recommended by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) Government of India.

(c) Budget Classification & Analysis : Budget document is an important source of financial information of the Government. On the basis of these documents, this section deals with an analytical studies to recast, reclassified and regrouped the state government transactions into meaningful categories

(d) Socio-Economic Survey : A number of activities are bundled under this section. It includes collection and compilation of datas pertaining to village level statistical index, Industrial Statistics, Government Employees Census, Employment Statistics, Hospital Statistics etc. This section also bring out a publication such as Statistical Handbook, Socio-Economic Review, Village Level Statistics.

(e) Press : Assistant Research Officer is the section in charge of this section. The main activities is printing of departmental official publications, booklets and forms etc. It is also responsible for drawing maps and charts etc. for statistical publications.

(v) ADMINISTRATION :
Administration Wing comprises two section namely : Establishment Section and Account Section.

(a) Establishment Section : This section is held responsible for maintaining the service matters of all officer and staff, stationeries and Indents, Vehicles, Office machine and equipments, furniture and furnishing, receipts and despatch of daks and General Office maintenance.
Superintendent is the Officer-in charge of this section.

(b) Account Section :
The main activities of this section are :-

* Preparation of Budget Estimate and issuing LOC to the District
Office on quarterly basis.
* Checking of all departmental bills for submission to Treasury.
* Maintaining monthly expenditure statement of District Offices.
* Preparation of Quarterly Progress Report on Plan Scheme.
* Reconciliation work between Department and A.G. Shillong.

(vi) COMPUTER SECTION: At present the Directorate is maintaining a small computer section to cater to the data processing needs of the Department and for performing the task of building up a database for the State Government and various other data users which is functioning under the guidance and supervision of Deputy Director. 8 Nos. of desktop PCI is presently installed mainly to process data on ‘Registration of Birth & Deaths’,Agrilcultural Census, State Income, any other relevant data generated at the State level and for general correspondence. These computers are also equipped with a bare minimum pheriperals like Printer,CD Writer, Scanner and UPS. This section is manned by one regular Computer Operator and two Operator on Muster Roll basis.

1.10 OTHER ACTIVITIES
(i) Library :

The Department is maintaining a small library. It contains mostly of publications whatever we received from CSO, NSSO, Directorate of Economics & Statistics of other States and a few other publication from other organisation and individuals. It also includes various publication brought out by this Department from time to time. However, due to absence of any seperate post of a librarian to look after it and unavailability of fund, improvement could not be made to this library in terms of volume, contents and categorizing of the books. The lirbary is accessible to everyone on all working days during office hours with prior permission from the officer-in charge.

(ii) Website:
In collaboration with NIC Mizoram, this Directorate has created website where basic information on Official Statistics of Mizoram and some important economic indicator of Mizoram will be accessible to any interested persons via internet. The website is expected to be formally launched shortly. After hosting of the website, informations and datas contain in the website will be updated regularly.

1.11 FUNCTIONS & DUTIES OF DISTRICT OFFICES
District offices are primarily entrusted with the task of collecting primary data and helping all the agencies in the district in furnishing current and accurate statistical returns to the State Headquarters. They function under the supervision, guidance and control of Directorate of Economics & Statistics. District Offices are also entrusted with the responsibility of execution of field works of different surveys such as Agricultural Census, Economic Census etc. They have been assigned the task of building up of the data-base for micro-level planning.

These district offices prepare and bring out District statistical handbook, district and block level economic indicators from time to time to assist the district development authorities. District Research Officers also now act as District Registrar of Births & Deaths assisting in the compilation and improvement of vital statistics at the district level and monitoring the functioning of Registrar of Births and Deaths in their respective jurisdiction for improvement of the level of registrations.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF OFFICER & EMPLOYEES
2.1 Director : Director, being the head of the office is the over all in charge of all administrative, and technical works of the department and also functioned as Drawing and Disbursing Officers in financial matters. He is an officer who acts on behalf of Directorate and all his subordinate offices by holding different charges. He is responsible for the disposal of all Government business date within his offices under his charge.

2.2 Joint Director : Besides assisting the Director in all matter of activities within the office, Joint Director is entrusted to look after administrative matters of the Directorate He also takes charge of the Director in the absence of the latter.

2.3 Deputy Director : In conjunction with the organizational set up, there are four (4) Deputy Directors who are held responsible for every wings within the Directorate.
Deputy Director are responsible of initiating and supervising all the works under different wings. They maintain the attendance register of the wing and are vested with the power of granting Casual Leave to the staff working under their respective wings.

Main duties of Deputy Director are :
(a) to tender necessary proposals and suggestion to higher authority i.e. the Joint Director / Director for taking decision.
(b) To initiate and prepare draft plan and budget annually for their respective wings.
(c) To bring out an annual administrative and achievement report at the end of every financial year concerning their respective wings.
(d) To conduct or arranged necessary training program for officers and staff under their control in the field of their activities.
(e) To closely monitor in detail, every aspect of the works and activities carried out by the wings.

2.4 Research Officer : Research Officers are the officers subordinate to Deputy Director. Research Officer take charge of Deputy Director in the absence of the latter. Wherever there exist two or more filled up post of Research Officer they are entrusted to look after the works of a particulars section under a particular wing. Their main duty is to closely supervise and monitor all Census and Surveys of the section, they are also expected to tender useful suggestions pertaining to their works, to the Deputy Director as they are considered to be an expert in their respective field of activities.

2.5 Superintendent : He is responsible and to look after establishment section within the directorate and also assist th Joint Director in all administrative matters. Superintendent is held responsible for supervising all activities of the establishment section.

2.6 Asst. Research Officer / Statistical Officer :
Asst. Research Officer / Statistical Officer are officer subordinate to Research Officer. They generally assisted the Research Officer, in all matters relating to supervision, monitoring of all activities in their respective section. They are empowered to take charge of all the duties in the absence of Research Office

2.7 Inspector of Statistics: They are mainly entrusted with the task of field supervision, scrutiny, analysis and monitoring of all kinds of surveys/censuses and of reports and returns from various other statistical agencies and even from their subordinates i.e. field level operators.

2.8 Sub-Inspector of Statistics/Field Assistants: They are mainly held responsible for collecting information and data down from the grassroot level. They are the hands and tools of the Department for collecting primary and secondary datas in different kinds of Surveys and Censuses. However, there may be certain instances in some surveys where collection of primary datas are done by Village Level Workers or other agencies, in such cases Sub-Inspector of Statistics may be utilised for undertaking supervisory and anyalytical works also.

2.9 Artist : Under the technical guidance and supervision of Assistant Research Officer (M), the Artist prepare maps, design charts and picture supporting informations and data be incorported in various publications.

2.10 Computer Operator : Every Statistical data, information and document needed to be computerized are entrusted to the computer section. Computer operators run and operate on the software designed for processing various datas and informations. Computer Operator is held responsible for monitoring and supervising the daily activities within the Computer section. He is also responsible for the proper functioning and maintenance of all the machines and also maintain liaison with NIC for development of software and website.

THE PROCEDURE FOLLOWED IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS
3.1 Directorate: The decision making process in the Directorate office is more or less centralized as the Director who is the head of office is the final decision making authority through the assistance of Joint Director in all matters of administration and techn ical aspects within the Directorate. As indicated before, the Directorate is divided into different wings, each wing is headed and looked after by a Deputy Director , such being the system, every Deputy Director is held accountable to the Director and Joint Director. However, Deputy Directors are authorized to dispose of various correspondence which are of routine works in nature.

In accordance with the organisational set up, every correspondence are dealt with by one lower level official e.g. Assistant, UDC, Inspector of Statistics, Sub Inspector of Statistics etc. Every correspondence and proposal are docketed and then put up by these officials to their respective immediate officer who in turn endorsed it to the Officer in charge of the wings after giving necessary elaboration and comments. The Deputy Director will then thoroughly examine the case and forward it to Joint Director and ultimately to the Director for final decision and orders. However, depending upon the nature of the case and proposal decision is also taken through discussion and meetings.

3.2 District offices : At the district level offices, District Research Officers are the final decision making authority in all administrative and technical matters. All other subordinate officers and staff are accountable to him. All proposals and correspondences are endorsed to him through the Statistical officer/Head Assistant for taking final decision. However, depending upon the nature of the case and proposal decision is also taken through discussion and meetings.

RULES, REGULATIONS, INSTRUCTIONS, MANUALS AND RECORDS FOR DISCHARGING ITS FUNCTIONS
4 .1 Being an office under the administrative set up of the Government of Mizoram, the Directorate and District Offices discharged their functions under all the existing relevant rules and regulations adopted and implemented by the state government and amended from time to time.

4. 2 The Department in its role as an important source of information is functioning under the support and safeguard of the collection of Statistics Act 1953. It enables the department to collect data even on a compulsory basis in various field and empowers the department to collect statistics in regard to any matter with proper safeguarding of their confidential status to individual respondents and without disclosure of identity.

4. 3 In Mizoram, Economics & Statistics Department has been entrusted with the responsibility of registration of Births & Deaths. The registration of Births & Deaths Act 1969 and the Mizoram Registration of Births & Deaths Rules 1978 framed under the Act came into force in the state w.e.f. 1.7.1985. In compliance with the revamped system of civil registration system, the Mizoram Registration of Births & Deaths Rules 1978 was amended in the year 1999 and introduced in Mizoram w.e.f. 1st January 2000. Acts, rules and manuals used in Civil Registration System are as below :

(i) The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969
(ii) The Mizoram Registration of Births and Deaths Rules 1978 and 1999.
(iii) Training manual on Civil Registration System (Mizo)
(iii) Handbook on Civil Registration.

4.4 Instructions, manual used for various other nation wide surveys are as follows :-

(i) National Sample Survey (NSS) :
Instructions to Field staff Vol I & II
Prepared by NSSO , Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation , Government of India, containing the design, concepts,definition and procedure for every round of
undertaking the survey . Each round consist of normally one year (12 months).

(ii) Agricultural Census :
‘Manual of Schedules and Instruction for Data Collection ‘ for non-land record states prepared every census by Department of Agriculture & Co-operation (A.C.Division) Government of India.

(iii) Economic Census :
‘Instructions to Enumerators/Supervisors for conducting Economic Census’ - prepared for every census by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) , Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India.

(iv) Official Statistics
For collection & compilation of official statistics at state level necessary guidelines, methodology and rules & regulations are prepared by the Directorate from time to time. Besides, ‘Guide to Official Statistics ‘ published by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) , Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India is also used as references.