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Its official: No special status to AP
The Centre on Friday confirmed the worst fears of the Andhra Pradesh Government by declaring that the much-sought after ‘Special Status’ may not be conferred on it at all owing to non-fulfillment of “features necessitating special consideration”. This shocking disclosure came in the form of a reply to a question of two MPs of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, K Prabhakar Reddy and M Venkateswara Rao (Babu).
New Delhi: The Centre on Friday confirmed the worst fears of the Andhra Pradesh Government by declaring that the much-sought after ‘Special Status’ may not be conferred on it at all owing to non-fulfillment of “features necessitating special consideration”. This shocking disclosure came in the form of a reply to a question of two MPs of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, K Prabhakar Reddy and M Venkateswara Rao (Babu).
Both the MPs sought to know from Minister of Planning Rao Inderjit Singh whether the Government had received representations from AP and Telangana for according the Status. They also sought to know the criteria for according such a status. In his reply, the Minister categorically stated that the States under this category (that of Special Status) should have a low resource base “and are not in a position to mobilize resources for their developmental needs even though the per capita income of some of these States is relatively high”.
In a reply that has the potential to trigger a political battle between the TDP and the BJP in the coming days, the Minister had also listed out categorically why special funds could not be allocated. Special Category States are given preferential treatment in providing Normal Central Assistance (NCA) and the State share in Centrally-sponsored Schemes was usually lower for Special Category States, especially the States of North Eastern region as compared to General Category States.
Only Special Category States were provided Special Plan Assistance (for projects) (90 per cent grant) and Special Central Assistance grants (united) (100 per cent grant). The assistance for Externally-aided Projects (EAPs) flows to Special Category States as 90 per cent grant whereas for General Category States, it flows as back-to-back loans, the Minister further clarified. The Minister stated that as the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission devolution had taken into account the total requirements of the States.
The requirements of the State under Plan and Non-Plan, Normal Central Assistance, Special Assistance (united) (SCA) and Special Plan Assistance (tied to projects) (SPA) had not been provided in the Union Budget 2015-16 (Plan).All this verbiage means Andhra Pradesh cannot be in the category of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
The Minister also reminded the members of the House that the Central Government would be taking appropriate fiscal measures, including offer of tax incentives to promote industrialization in both AP and Telangana States under Section 94 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (APR Act), 2014.
