JUST three months after the Fifth Pay Commission submitted its recommendations, stirrings of dissent are audible. Last week, on the basis of grievances voiced by the defence forces, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence directed the government to examine the feasibility of setting up a separate pay commission for the forces. Making many observers wonder whether the three-year exercise undertaken by the Pay Commission had come to naught. The defence personnel's grievances stem from certain basic discrepancies. While 13 months' pay in a year has been recommended for BSF, CRPF and ITBP personnel, this benefit has not been extended to the forces; while the Model Cadre Structure for the IAS and other Group A services prescribes that 17 per cent of the total service strength be at the joint secretary-level, only 0.5 per cent of the forces enjoy the salary and perks of that seniority. Worse, for troops serving in the North-east, a special allowance (12.5 per cent of the basic pay) has not been provided for. "This is blatantly unfair and a perfect recipe for a national disaster," says Brig S.P. Sibal, the armed forces adviser to the Commission. In fact, so vehement was the opposition that last month the three service chiefs met the then prime minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, to protest against "a bid to demoralise the forces".