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Maharashtra government goes back on retirement age

The Maharashtra government has decided to reduce the retirement age of its employees from 60 to 58, and hike the price of cotton.

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said the proposal would be implemented immediately after the Cabinet passes it. "This has been done in the interests of the unemployed youth," he added.

Though it was agreed that the price of cotton under the cotton monopoly procurement scheme would be increased, the decision would be implemented at an "appropriate time", he said.

Besides Joshi and his deputy Gopinath Munde, the meeting of the state government's joint co-ordination committee was attended by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Subhash Desai, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan, and Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party chief Suryabhan Wahadane and general secretary Sharad Kulkarni.

Joshi said the meeting, held in a "cordial atmosphere", reviewed the performance of the almost four-year-old Sena-BJP coalition government.

The much-awaited discussion was deferred by a week because of the cricket controversy.

The committee, however, failed to decide the issue of free electricity to farmers. This has been a major bone of contention between the two alliance partners.

Thackeray had directed the government to provide the sop, but was opposed by Munde, who holds the energy portfolio, saying the decision could be implemented only with a subsidy to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

The committee will discuss the issue in detail, the chief minister said.

Joshi said Mahajan was urged to request Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to permit the state to export onions. The demand comes in the wake of a steep fall in onion prices coupled with increased production.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the only two states that export onions now.

The chief minister said the Cabinet would also decide on setting up a separate department for the welfare of nomadic tribes.

UNI

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