He told media persons here on Saturday evening at Ramgiri that if Punjab and Tamil Nadu governments could provide such facilities to poor farmers why shouldn't it be possible for a progressive state like Maharashtra.

He said, the government could provide electricity to poor farmers in the state upto certain units for free. ``We will discuss the issue in the cabinet soon and modalities on it would be worked out accordingly'', he said and claimed that financial burden would be less than Rs 600-crore annually if implemented.

He advised Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who holds the Energy portfolio, not to raise objection on the issue publicly. ``We (Joshi and Munde) have discussed the issue twice and now he should not make any public statement against the concept publicly till the governmenttakes a formal decision'', he insisted.

The proposal, if implemented would benefit 22-lakh farmers who subscribe to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, but it would either put enormous burden on the state exchequer or on MSEB's industrial and domestic consumers.

Earlier, Munde dismissed the proposal asserting that the concept was impracticable. He said that if the government wanted to implement it, either it should allow the MSEB to effect a general hike in power tariff, which is already the highest in the country or dole out Rs 650-crore to the MSEB as subsidy, or effect drastic cuts in planned expenditure of various departments to meet the additional expenditure.

However, to a question he replied, the state was not facing an acute financial crisis as portrayed by the opposition; hence it wouldn't be very difficult to bear the additional burden of proposed free electricity to poor farmers.

``Our budgetary performance is the best in the country. It was even certified by the deputy chairman of thePlanning Commission and the Ministry of Finance'', Munde claimed describing the recent screams over the financial crisis in the state as politically motivated.

Encounter probes unnerving police, says CM

NAGPUR: The Chief Minister today said his government had taken a serious note of the recent murder of Mumbai businessman Bharat Shah by gangsters and will make all efforts to arrest the culprits but asserted that the police are finding it difficult to take on the gangsters in view of the judicial probe into police encounters. He told media persons here today, ``It has a demoralising effect on the morale of the police force'', referring to an inquiry report submitted to the high court on fake encounters in Mumbai.