Assam House demands continuation of ‘special category’ status to the state

Guwahati: With the Central government sending out indication about its intention to withdraw ‘special category state’ on Assam, the state Assembly on Tuesday passed an unanimous resolution urging the Centre to continue to accord the special category bracket for the state on ground of being a  backward and problems-ridden state with limited avenues for internal revenue generation.
The resolution, moved by state Parliamentary Affairs minister Rakibul Hussain, read, “The state government of Assam shall move the concerned authorities in the government of India to continue the special category status for the state of Assam so as to ensure that the pattern of funding Central Assistance to Assam shall be either 100% Central Share or on the principle of 90% Central Share and 10% State Share (90%:10%).”
All members of Treasury as well as Opposition benches extended support to the resolution that was passed and unanimously.
Government sources said there are 66 schemes in which central assistance to state is generally received and Assam being s special category state, the pattern of funding for these schemes is shared between the Centre and the state at the rate of 90:10.
However, it has been noticed that state funding share in at least five such schemes has been increa-sed to more than 10%, the source said.
In these schemes, Centre : State share funding pattern are like Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (70:30), Rajiv Gandhi Pan-chayat Sashastrikaran Yojana (75:25), Command Areas Development (50:50), National Mission on Agriculture Extension and Technology (75:25) and Assistance to State for Infrastructure Development for exports (80:20).
The state government has further pointed that salary expenditure per-centage is nearly 60% to 65% of total revenue expenditure (by end of 2014-15) and it would further increase after the Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission for revision of Pay and Pension is submitted.
The Centre is apparently not happy with the state government of Assam for its failure to submit utilisation certificates against Central funds granted to the state under various schemes during 2014-15 financial year.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had appealed the House, including the BJP members, to unani-mously oppose the recom-mendations of the 14th Finance Commission and pressing the Centre to continue with the Special category status.
The highest grants-in-aid has been recommended to Jammu & Kashmir at Rs 59,666 crore, followed by Rs 40,625 crore for Himachal Pradesh. For North Eastern states like Manipur, Mizo-ram, Nagaland and Tripura, the grants-in-aid for reve-nue deficit for five years are higher than that of Assam at Rs 10,227 crore, Rs 12,183 crore, Rs 18,475 crore and Rs 5,103 crore respectively. (with inputs from PTI)