No Special Status to any State

New Delhi, April 12: The Central Minister of State for Planning Inderjit Singh has announced that There is no plans to grant Special Category Status to any State told in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The Minister was replying to Congress member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, who wanted to convene a meeting of National Development Council to discuss the necessity for continuance of the concept of SCS.

Members of the Congress, the Left, and the Trinamool Congress, however, they were not satisfied with the Minister’s reply and staged a walkout.



Responding to Opposition parties, he said that, "Instead of criticizing the government, they should ensure fiscal discipline in their respective States and develop them utilizing the extra Rs.1.78 lakh crore that the Centre had given through the Finance Commission. The last State to be accorded the status was Uttarakhand way back in 2001 and no State had been given the status after that", the Minister added.

He said that, He would not deny that, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced that they would give Andhra Pradesh SCS for five years.

Mr.Singh said the basic principle for according SCS was the approval from the National Development Council. "As far as AP is concerned, there was no endorsement, approval from the NDC. We are not giving SCS to Andhra," the Minister added.