The Sixth Central Pay Commission"s Recommendations are a conspiracy by the coterie of the IAS spurred by their overweening ambition to continue untrammeled their game of self aggrandizement. They may not have sat together in a smoke filled room to hatch it. But there it is, the recommendations are the most credible circumstantial evidence.
This is obvious from the way the commission has belittled the police and the Jawans as also the IPS and the Commissioned Officers of middle ranks. Pay Commission prides itself that it did the job with a staff of 17 and within sixty percent of its budget. But the way it is has given the short end of the stick to the rank and file except the IAS and the IFS whose hegemony is not only maintained but reinforced by untenable arguments shows that it could have been written within a fortnight by the IAS Member Secretary all by herself with no staff and no expenditure.
More than a year ago, in their elaborately designed Questionnaire they elicited views on constituting a Unified Civil Service. Over 70 percent responded with a thumping Yes , with 30 percent opting for a single stream and 40 percent for a two stream structure. Yet there are no discussions in the commissions" report as to why this all important issue is not explored. Instead the 'onerous" nature of the duties of the young IAS in the field are described with great empathy as if all else, particularly the IPS, have a cushy time. My information both by gathering and observation is that an average direct recruit IAS officer spends not more than three years in duty posts at the districts and difficult stations are almost always manned by State PCS officers. An IAS officer goes on deputation to all sorts of PSEs and enjoys perquisites of the CEO right from the age of 28 or so and he or she ensures that his comfort level is never diminished by pulling strings to get Foreign postings ,Harvard / British Council Scholarships, repeated stints at Delhi where pushing files is more important than delivering on commitments.That the Commission should have concentrated on a far compensation for the 5000 odd guys while the hard work of all the otners from DGP to traffic policeman from Maj General to a Jawan is brushed aside under some sweeping generalizations.
For instance, even while recommending decadering for opening up the government service to others the Pay Commission does not care to examine the way the strength of the All India Services is fixed. The Commission thinks that by giving an unconscionably disproprtionate skewed salary to the Secretary and Cabinet Secretary it will help attract talent to civil service. In fact the number of IAS and IFS officers who have retired below the rank of secretary can be counted on one"s fingers. Almost all the Secretary level posts are filled by them and since they have rules are so framed ( for instance the two year difference between the IAS and other services in seniority to reach Director Level , reiterated by the Commission with weak arguments) to ensure that they only will go up to the room at the top the commissions" bounty will only benefit this class. No one in his senses will join civil or military service on the basis of the pay and perks of the top most. I don"t think people are queuing up to join Pepsicola because Indira Nooyi gets $14 millions annually. A candidate values future potential for growth of the organisation and therefore of himself. VI CPC has belied the expectations of aspiring candidates to the services by downgrading them too far below the IAS. Recruitments for both streams are done by open competitions. In respect to Services , the IAS has been steadily chipping away at the warrant of precedence to diminish the importance of the former. Recent instance of attempt to frisk and body search the top military officers at the airports is a case in point.
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