Talking to a group of selected journalists at his official residence Ramgiri here on Saturday night, Joshi also dismissed any chances of a proposal to elevate the Ministers of State belonging to the group, to the posts of Cabinet Ministers.

It was Minister of State for Education and Cultural Affairs Anil Deshmukh, the leader of the group of independent MLAs, who demanded that the present three ministers of the group, including himself, be elevated to Cabinet ministers and four more MLAs from the group be given Cabinet berths in the proposed expansion.

Deshmukh had claimed in a press conference here last week, that he met Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and the Chief Minister in this regard.``I am not aware the fact that Anil Deshmukh is the leader of the group of independent MLAs,'' the Chief Ministerquipped and said that such a demand had not been placed before him so far.

He said that the much-delayed Cabinet expansion would materialise next month after the winter session of the State legislature and hinted that the Independent MLAs' demand would be ignored.

Answering a question, he denied that pressure from his deputy Gopinath Munde to include the independent legislator from Marathwada, Ashok Dongaonkar as Minister, delayed the Cabinet expansion.

Joshi, who arrived here this evening by a special plane from Nanded, to attend the winter session of the State Legislature commencing from December 14 here, reiterated that the session would continue for three weeks till December 31 next.

The Dani Commission report on the Gowari tragedy would be tabled in the forthcoming session. Over 120 Gowari tribals from the region were killed in a stampede during the winter session of the State legislature here in November 1994.

The then State Government had instituted an enquiry commission, headed by JusticeDani, to probe the reasons for the tragedy. The panel got two extensions during its tenure.

The Government is also tabling the Gundewar Committee Report on the firing at Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Mumbai.

To a query, Joshi said that he had not received any complaint from noted social worker Anna Hazare against Minister for Social Welfare Babanrao Gholap on corruption charges, so far. ``If I receive the complaint, I will certainly act accordingly,'' he informed.

To another question, he said that the Government would not introduce another `development package' for Vidarbha. ``We are already committed to implement our developmental programmes for the backward region, announced in December 1995,'' he said.

Joshi reiterated that the development backlog of Vidarbha, as identified by the Dandekar Committee, would be removed by 2000 and the development package announced by the Government would be implemented.