No special category status to Odisha, reiterates Centre

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Aug 1, 2015 at 4:18 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
New Delhi, Aug 1:

The Centre on Friday made it clear that Odisha and Bihar will not be accorded special category state status since there has been a significant increase in Central grants to these two States following the recommendations of the 14^th Finance Commission.

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In a verbal reply during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Planning (Independent charge) Inderjit Singh Rao told that the Central government has no proposal to give special category status to any state.

While Bihar MP Rajesh Ranjan presented strong arguments in favour of Bihar being accorded special category state status, BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy said that the Central government has provided Rs 8,300 crore less to Odisha in comparison to last year.

On the other hand, some States had recently demanded special grant packages from the Centre for their development. Bihar and Odisha had demanded special packages from the Centre for socio-economic development in the 2015-16 fiscal.