54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST water and electricity charges should be extended to officers of the rank of Major General and above also. Similarly the Kit Maintenance Allowance ofRs 50 per month has also been extended to officers of the rank of Major General and above." While expounding its philosophy, the Commission states that the existing pay structure is heavily weighted in favour of administrators, and, therefore, the Commission while recommending the scales have kept this principle in view : that all service people (technical and scientific) who entered government service should be able to reach the top without having to shift as administrators. This, the Commission observes, is particularly important in the case of specialists. For example, doctors, surgeons or technical experts or scientists need not become either directors-general or deputy directors-general if they want to reach the highest scales. It has been observed that by becoming administrators, they are lost to the profession. This recommendation of the Commission is basically sound, but carrying a legacy of the past philosophy, it still recommended the highest pay scales for administrators, specially those who join I AS. The Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr D S Kothari while making a strong plea for improving the salary scales of university teachers stated : "At the University stage, the remuneration of teachers should be broadly comparable to that of senior services of the government so that a fair proportion of the talent in the country is attracted to to the profession of teaching and research. What is important here is that the salary of a Vice-chancellor should be about the same as that of a secretary to the Union Government, the maximum salary of a University professor should be the same as the maximum in the senior scale of the IAS, and for outstanding professors, higher salaries comparable to the supertime scales of pay of the IAS should be available53 (Report of the Education Commission 1964-66, p 50). To allocate talent to the various cadres of services where equally qualified persons are needed, it would be better to provide the same scales of pay and then leave the choice to the individuals on the basis of their aptitudes and predilections. Many good scholars who could have contributed much more in teaching or research are brought away by the All-India services by the lure of higher pay and perquisites and, thus, they become cogs in the administrative machinery. The Pay Commission should have adopted a better philosophy of distribution of talent rather than maintaining the colonial supremacy of the IAS. Following the Commission, the state governments will also recommend higher pay scales for their administrative services. Will it not perpetuate a social structure which puts the administrator at a higher pedestal than his counterpart who is equally (and in some ways even more) qualified but who opted for a different profession ? Two more questions are relevant from the point of view of moving towards a more progressive pay structure. First, should there be a federal or integrated pay commission for the country as a whole ? Secondly, should there be a co-ordinated approach towards wages in public and