With the armed forces insisting on a pay hike, the government has said it is "very difficult" to maintain a balance in salaries of government servants doing varied jobs.

"It is a very difficult exercise. Because it is not just a question of ensuring that people get better salaries. It is also a question of parities.... balances," Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar said in an interview.

He was responding to a question on what steps the government was contemplating in view of the armed forces' demand for pay parity.

Chandrasekhar said issues become more complicated when people start feeling that they are being discriminated against by the Pay Commission recommendations.

"It is very difficult when people feel that this chap has got more than me...that feeling is there. So, to maintain that kind of balance.... it is very difficult," he said.

The Cabinet Secretary said the ministerial committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had held both Defence and Finance portfolios earlier, was working on to find out a solution to the demands of the defence forces.

The armed forces have recently strongly conveyed to the government that there should be "no dilution" on their demands for pay parity.

This comes in the wake of reports that the government was trying to find a "middle path" to break the deadlock over the armed forces' demands that included placing Army Lieutenant Colonels and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force in Pay Band-4.

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