Mumbai: Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar announced on Thursday that the Maharashtra Cabinet has approved the proposal for a 30 percent salary cut of all state legislators for a year, in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic. The decision has been taken to mitigate the economic loss caused by the lockdown which has been enforced to contain the spread of Covid-19. The salary cut of all MLAs will begin from this month and will last a year, Pawar said after chairing the Cabinet meeting held today.

In the meeting, the members took a decision to nominate Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to the Legislative Council. The Maharashtra Cabinet also approved the constitution of two committees for analyzing and formulating a plan to revive the state's economy after the lockdown period is over.

The first committee will have experts, including former bureaucrats and officials from Maharashtra's Finance Ministry. The second committee will comprise state ministers, such as Ajit Pawar (Deputy CM), Jayant Patil, Balasaheb Thorat, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ashok Chavan and Anil Parab.

162 more Covid-19 cases were reported in Maharashtra on Thursday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 1,297, state Health Department said on Thursday.

(With Agency Inputs)