Briefing mediapersons after the first Cabinet meeting of the new government, Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde said all these employees will stand retired on February 28.

``As per official records, 16,375 employees will retire on February 28. The government will have to pay them Rs 199 crore towards their legal dues, which will be paid in the next financial year,'' Rane said.

Rane said the Cabinet empowered a four member committee headed by him to take a decision on the pending demands of the teachers. Accordingly, the committee will meet the leaders of the striking teachers tomorrow at Mantralaya. Besides Rane, Deputy ChiefMinister Gopinath Munde, Education Minister Sudhir Joshi and Finance Minister Mahadevrao Shivankar are the other members of the committee.

Reiterating his government's commitment to freeze the prices of five essential commodities at the 1995 level, Rane said the goverment will incur an annual additional expenditure of Rs 375 crore for the purpose for the next year, and an additional Rs 62.58 crore will be required to maintain the prices of wheat, rice, sugar, Dal and edible oil at the 1995 level until March.

The Cabinet has also decided to set up a separate department for denotified and nomadic tribes and other backward classes (OBCs) to implement schemes like Ashram Schools and award of loans and scholarships to students of these communities.

Rane said it has been decided to special court of a Metropolitan Magistrate at Bhandup to exclusively handle cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, two courts of Additional Sessions Judge will be set up at Niphad (Nasik) and Shahada (Dhule) soon. Ranesaid his government has also decided to give 90 per cent subsidy to those below poverty line to buy share and sugar mills.

The government has also decided to create 28 additional posts for the Joint Entrance Test being conducted on May 23 by the Maharashtra University of Health Science for admissions to MBBS course.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the issue of hiking the prices of cotton under the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme did not figure in today's cabinet meeting. ``We will take the decision at an appropriate time,'' Munde added.