The government and its allies Left parties on Wednesday sorted out differences over the implementation of the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme following discussions when it was agreed that the minimum wages would not be less than Rs 60.

Consideration of the amended bill, which was to begin on Wednesday, was deferred till Thursday to enable sorting out the problems, mainly in six areas.

Briefing reporters after the 30-minute long meeting, Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Brinda Karat said it was agreed that the minimum wages under the scheme would not be less than Rs 60, programme officers would give priority to women among the registered applicants, the time limit for the implementation would be five years and suggestions of the different states would be taken into account on deciding the schemes.

Nilotpal Basu Communist Party-Marxist, Gurudas Das Gupta and Ajay Chakravarti (CPI) and Manoj Mukherjee (RSP) were among the Left leaders present at the meeting with the Defence Minister and leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam [Images] Nabi Azad.