Planning Commission, is not keen on considering it at least not in the near future
Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been camping in New Delhi for the last three days to seek a special category status for Telangana, but the Planning Commission, it seems, is not keen on considering it at least not in the near future.
Mr Rao met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday and sought special status for Telangana state, similar to what is being extended to Andhra Pradesh.
However, the Planning Commission has conveyed to the TS government that it will consider fresh proposals only after clearing older proposals of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, that are pending with it for over three years now.
The special status entails a state getting 90 per cent of the Centre’s devolutions in the form of grants and only 10 per cent as loans. Other states get 30 per cent in grants and the rest as loans. At present, only 11 states like Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Assam, Uttarakhand etc. enjoy the special status.
The UPA government had promised the special status for AP and incorporated it in the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014 approved in Parliament. However, even more than four months after bifurcation of AP, there is no progress on that issue.
Mr Rao informed Mr Jaitley that Telangana state meets all the eligibility criteria for the status as 9 out of 10 districts in the state are backward, while it is not the case with AP.
He also pointed out that though giving Hyderabad to Telangana is being cited as reason for not considering Telangana for the status, revenues from Hyderabad are falling drastically with several businesses shifting their base to AP and paying taxes to the AP government.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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