Chief Minister Manohar Joshi announced this decision taken by the state cabinet in a meeting held this morning. ``We have taken this decision respecting the feelings of the MLAs and the parents worried about the future of their children. An ordinance to this effect will soon be promulgated. However, this should not be seen as the defeat of the state government. We will discuss the various provisions of the Act with the MLAs and the parents and introduce a new comprehensive act next year,'' the Chief Minister said in a press conference this afternoon.

MLAs from all parties, managements of convent schools and parents had mounted pressure on the government to suspend the Act in its entirety. The Act provides for regulatory powers to the state government over admissions to kindergartens statewide.

Ever since the legislation was unanimously passed by both houses of the statelegislature, educational institutions run by Catholics had strongly opposed its implementation, claiming that the Pre-Primary Act violated the constitutional rights of the minority institutions.

Convent schools had questioned the state's rights to exercise such powers and dismissed the government's claim that the constitutional rights bestowed on minorities were not applicable to the pre-school centres.

The government had also earlier taken a firm stand on the implementation of the Act, and Education Minister Sudhir Joshi had even threatened that the schools which opposed the Act would not be provided with water and electricity. The Convent schools had registered their protest by indefinitely stalling admissions to kindergartens.

According to Convent schools, the state's ``arbitrary interpretation of the constitution would not only create room for legal disputes but also deprive the Christian community of a right it had been enjoying over the last 47 years.'' The Catholic institutions argued that someof the provisions of the legislation would cause a great deal of inconvenience and anxiety to the minority community as well as others. They said the provisions of the Act also went against the natural right of parents to send their children to educational institutions of their choice. The Catholic Bishops of Maharashtra had also appealed to the government to make amendments to the Pre-Primary Act.