The writer is ignorant of plain facts. I appreciate, his concern in getting the genie(read the military) out of the bottle.But this is a situation thrust upon them by degrading their pay and status.Armed forces had always wanted to delink their pay from civil, however, it was a request never granted.we never wanted faster promotions,coz it would alter the heirarchial structure and lead to management problems.so we had asked for running payband till Maj Gen(4th pay comm). It was given only till brig, by carving out rankpay out of basic pay.Payband was reverted to payscale in 5th paycommission,but rankpay was not merged back, but it was clarified (gov letter is available on the internet and I can paste it,if link is available)that rankpay is part of basic pay. fine. the equation of the nearest civ equivalent was JTS- Lt,sts- capt, JAG-Maj, NSFG-Lt col, DIG- Col, Brig-Between DIG and IG(ie,no civil equivalent), IG-Maj Gen,DGP(less than secretary)-Lt Gen, army commander Lt Gen- IAS secretary, and Cabinet secretary- service chiefs.Now, 6th paycommission has downgraded every mil rank from capt to Brigadier to one grade lower,not for any genuine reason, but quoting non-existing 'existing parity'. Chiefs took up the matter and committee of secretaries were setup to sort out the anomalies(no mil rep gain)They increased the grade pay of capt to brigadier, but through backdoor increased the grade pay of the civilian officers, thus maintaining the distorted equivalence. To add insult to injury, they applied the higher payband 4 to much junior officers than originally envisaged, thus making the net pay difference between civilians and army officers at lt col level onwards till Maj Gen substantial. I dont know how can one call this sorting out anomalies. They added and bloated out the anomalies. Where was the requirement to extend PB-4 to officers junior to Maj Gen (or IG)and create additional burden on exchequer?God save our country from these Beuraucrats!