At a coordination committee meeting last night attended by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Sharad Kulkarni and Suryabhan Wahadane, Munde said the financial situation of the State was not good, particularly in view of the additional funds required for implementing the recommendations of the fifth pay commission and for tackling wet-drought in parts of the State.

Elborating his contention, Munde said that against the estimated expenditure of Rs 3000 crore, thegovernment will have to shell out Rs 5,000 crore for 19 lakh employees, while another Rs 250 crore will be required for providing financial assistance to the rain affected farmers in several parts of the State.

``Under such circumstances, if a decision is taken to provide free power to the farmers, there will be no alternative except to impose a 30 per cent cut on the plan to garner Rs 1800 crore. That would be unwise since no funds would be left for developmental projects,'' Munde added.

Bal Thackeray had asked Joshi to provide free power to the farmers at the annula Dussehra rally. Taking exception to the unilateral decision, Munde had made it clear that in view of the unprecedented financial crisis, it will not be possible for the government to implement Thackeray's order.

Since no agreement could be reached between the Shiv Sena and BJP, the two parties decided to sort out the dispute at the coordination committee meeting.

Thackeray reportedly said at the meeting that if effective steps are takenit should not be difficult to provide free power to the farmers. ``You should work on the suggestions made by Subhash Desai. Stop theft of power and curtail expenditure, then it will be possible to provide free power,'' he said.

At his weekly media briefing, Joshi said since both the parties were adamant, no decision could be taken on providing free power. ``While Thackeray desired that Munde and I should sit together and take a decision, I suggested that a fresh meeting of the coordination committee should be convened to resolve the dispute,'' Joshi added.