In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi recently, the Sanghatana pointed out that the State Government was spending around 65 per cent of its annual outlay for salaries of government employees. ``If the government implements the Pay Commission recommendations it has to bear Rs 14,816 crore additional burden. And if so, almost 80 per cent of the total annual budget will be spent for government employees only,'' it further pointed out.

Highlighting the present financial condition of the State Government, the peasants' organisation said that there was already a deficit of Rs 846 crore in the current budget and it would reach to Rs 1,125-crore at the end of thefinancial year.

Besides, works of several projects were affected due to financial crunch, it pointed out. The government was unable to pay Rs 1,300 crore to the contractors of Krishna Valley Irrigation Development Corporation which has led to standstill of the work of the ambitious irrigation project.

The women wing of the Sanghatana said that it would fill up application forms of educated unemployed youths and submit those forms to the Government, urging that they were ready to work even less amount of the present salary of the government employees.

Prominent signatories of the letter include : the senior Sanghatana leader and legislator, Wamanrao Chatap, Raghunath Patil, Dilip Borse, MLA and the former president of Shetkari Sanghatana, Pasha Patel.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Madhyawarti Mahasangha has threatened to launch a massive agitation if the government failed to implement the agreement which was signed with the employees' union on August 3 last.

According to theagreement, the government would implement the Pay Commission recommendations with effect from January 1996 ; provide house rent, vehicle allowances and other allowances as per the Union Government employees and rectify the anomalies regarding fixation of pay scales of different cadres.

T R Shinde, president of the employees' union, said that the now the State employees would not tolerate further delay tactics of the Government for implementation of the recommendations.