Talking to the media after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said, ``The Cabinet unanimously approved the draft ordinance. It will come into force after President K R Narayanan approves it.''

In fact, Advocate General C J Sawant, during the course of a writ petition filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya on behalf of Investors' Grievances Forum, had informed the court that the government will bring in a comprehensive legislation in the next few months for the protection of the investors.

Joshi said, it was observed that a section of financial institutions were cheating investors by assuring them more interest on their investments. ``In some cases, it was found that they had neither paid the enhanced interest amount nor the principal amount to the investors,'' Joshiadded.

Elaborating on the proposed ordinance, Joshi said, his government has proposed attachment of properties of erring financial establishments and seizure of benami properties in the name of owners, partners, managers of such organisations.

While the seized property will be disbursed equally among the investors, there is a provision of Rs 1 lakh fine and imprisonment of six years to owners of such financial establishment, the Chief Minister added.

Vacant talathis' post: Deciding to launch a recruitment drive to fill 1,075 vacant posts of talathis statewide, Joshi said, ``There are 12,674 posts of talathis in the State out of which 11,599 are filled. The Cabinet today decided that the vacant posts will be filled in through district collectors with immediate effect. The postings will be on permanent basis and the new recruits will be used to tackle the ongoing strike of talathis statewide.''

He added that Revenue Minister Narayan Rane will decide if thetalathis on strike were to be sacked or suspended from the service. The Chief Minister said the government had given them time till November 16 and talathis at several places were resuming work.

Joshi further said that there were about 2,500 vacancies in the police department and the government had taken steps to remove the backlog. ``The posts under the Director General of Police and those in the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which lapsed in due course of time will be revived immediately. There are about 500 such posts which will soon be filled,'' the Chief Minister said.

Gram Panchayat Issues: On another issue, the State Cabinet decided that the rights of reviewing elections and taking decisions over no-confidence motions against sarpanch and upsarpanch in gram panchayats will be with the government. The Chief Minister said that these rights were with the revenue divisional commissioners and the government had no say in these matters. ``It was observed that the commissioners used to delaydecisions and subsequent action in these matters. In certain cases where no-confidence motions were passed against the sarpanch, no action was taken by the commissioners even after three months,'' Joshi observed.