Chief Minister Manohar Joshi this afternoon announced the decision taken in the routine weekly cabinet meeting in Mantralaya. He said the cabinet had also fixed the price at which the land transfer should take place from now onwards.

``The land can now be transferred at Rs 750 per sq ft in the completely developed nodes of CIDCO and the price in the underdeveloped area has been priced at Rs 500 per sq ft. Local farmers, landowners as well as the CIDCO have been demanding that the ban be revoked since 1995. However, the government wanted the farmers to utilise their own land,'' Joshi said.

The CIDCO would transfer 12.5 per cent developed land to the original owners after due verification, the CM said. He added that 114.25 hectares of landhas already been transferred and 962.24 hectares land was still left to be transferred to the owners. Also 6,000 out of 24,000 project-affected people were given due compensation and their land was transferred in their names.

TAX ABOLITION: The State Government has abolished the 39 per cent entertainment tax and 10 per cent surcharge levied on village fairs.

Announcing this decision taken by his cabinet, the CM said that the 15 per cent entertainment tax levied upon amusement parks would continue to exist. He informed that those items in a village fair having an entry fee, like merry-go-round or maut-ka-kua (Well of death), would benefit from this decision. However, circus shows and fun fairs organised in cities would continue to pay the taxes. The decision would hardly burden to the State Government as the revenue generated through the tax on fairs was a mere Rs 12.87 lakh for 1997-98, he added.

APPOINTMENTS: The Chief Minister today announced new chairmen for three differentdevelopment corporations in the State and two new guardian ministers.

Minister of State for Environment Vinod Gudadhe-Patil would look after Buldhana district and Minister of State for Dairy Development Vinayak Korde would be the Guardian Minister for Amravati district.

Rajaram Salvi, leader of Agri Sena and a close aide of Deputy CM Gopinath Munde, has been given charge of the Maharashtra State Other Backward Class Finance and Development Corporation. The newly formed Annasaheb Patil Backward Class Finance Development Corporation would be looked after by Kisan Varkhinde, another close aide of Munde. The Maharashtra Forest Development Corporation would be chaired by Prakash Jadhav. The three chairmen would enjoy privileges of a minister of state.

At the same time, Joshi announced that the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation would be run by only the chairman and the vice-chairman. Some of the members of MSRTC have resigned while some of them have been sacked.

No new appointments would be madeto the MSRTC. Joshi informed that new members would not be appointed to the Krishna Valley Development Corporation after the term of present members expires.