For instance, the Pay Commission had categorically suggested for the downsizing of staff by at least 30 per cent but nothing was done in this regard. Another good recommendation of the Pay Commission was to do away with plethora of holidays. But unfortunately the government of the day turned a Nelson's eye towards that suggestions.

What is, however, most baffling for the whole country and its ordinary citizens is that without considering the financial repurcussions and consequential high inflation the government not only accepted all other proposal but also showed extra zeal and enthusiasm in raising the retirement age of the employees.

In recent years, governments across the world have beenmoving in opposite directions with regard to policies concerning the salaries of their employees and their numbers, both of which have been growing out of control.

A few days ago, the Hong Kong government reduced minimum wages by 5 per cent. Recently, the Singapore government brought down government salaries by 5 to 8 per cent. China is busy slashing the number of its employees, even of its privileged military. Free rides in government cars are a thing of the past for senior officials in China.

Government employees in some African countries are offering voluntary pay cuts to enable their governments to pay their salaries which are in arrears, as there is no money in the treasury. Many developed countries have been active in downsizing their work force, as the private sector has been doing for a long time. The United States is a conspicuous example.

India, however, is headed in the opposite direction. The Fifth Central Pay Commission helped to raise salaries, perks and pensions beyond the wildest dreamsof employees, especially of senior officials, leaving the bloated size of the bureaucracy at the upper levels untouched. In most state governments, departments like the police, with multiple departmental heads, would be the envy of old Ravana who had only 10 heads.

In federal governments like the US, Canada and Australia, it is common to have different rates of pay in the central and state governments, unlike in India where each of the high court judges or the chief secretary in a tiny state like Sikkim with less than half a million population get the same pay as their counterparts in much larger states. There is clamour for pay parity in all state governments with the central government, which is being accepted one by one.

The Fifth Pay Commission was appointed by the Narasimha Rao government some months before it left office. It had only three members, a retired Supreme Court judge, an IAS officer and an academic, none of whom had any specialised experience in matters connected with pay revision. Allprevious pay commissions had many more members and some were experts in the field.Here are a few specimens: