Terminating Spl Category Status a big blow to NE States: Ibobi
Source: Hueiyen News Service / MIC

New Delhi, April 27 2015 : Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh on Monday pointed out that the termination of the Special Category Status accorded to some States would be a "big blow" to the interest of these States which had been reeling under backwardness and underdevelopment.

The Chief Minister made the comment while making a presentation at the second meeting of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) held at NITI Aayog in Delhi on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Further making his points, Ibobi said the Centre's move will not only be "dangerous" but also "disastrous" and stressed that the financial aids availed by those States put under the the Special Category Status should be continued as in the past.

He pointed out that even with only 10% share, Northeast States faced difficulty in accessing Central assistance under CSS.

"For schemes in category B in the budget, the 2014-15 allocation was less than about Rs.24,000 cr.

However, the release to States was just only about little over 60% of the Budget Expenditure figure while for other States it was above 85%", he said.

Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland at the meeting of the Chief Minister's Sub Group on Rationalization of Centrally Sponsored Scheme, at NITI Aayog, in New Delhi on Monday

The Chief Minister remarked that fiscally weak Northeast States would get penalised for their inability to provide enhanced matching contribution.

Ibobi said for the year 2014-15 the total releases for the 11 States including Northeast and other Himalyan States was Rs 24,536 crore whereas for only one general category State like Uttar Pradesh, it was Rs.22,749 crore.

"Therefore, any change in funding pattern to the disadvantage of these 11 states would further reduce the Central transfers to these 11 States, which was not a desirable situation", he pointed out.

The Chief Minister also mentioned that Northeast States suffered from various disabilities like weak capacity, difficulty in bidding projects, higher costs of material and transportation, low resource base and above all limited working season.

As a result, in past three years as per very rough calculation, release was less than 85% of the budget figure even in block grant and in 2014-15, the figure had come down to about 70%, he said.

Ibobi also pointed out that in the post-14th Finance Commission grant, block grants like Normal Central Assistance, Special Central Assistance, Special Plan Assistance etc.

had been discontinued.

Since the Northeast States also lacked in their ability to attract private investments, CSSs came as a huge support in development of these States.

All Northeast States would be burdened with funding of Schemes under Category 'D' for which there is no Budget provision in Union Budget 2015-16 .

The Chief Minister suggested that the erstwhile flagship programmes like SSA, MDM, RMSA, RUSA, NRHM, ICDS, IWMP, AIBP, under Category 'B' might be fully supported by the Government of India and transferred to Category 'A' , at least in case of Special Category States.

He said, "It would be extremely unfair to revise the sharing pattern of Schemes under Category 'B' to 50:50 and to stop NCA, SCA, SPA, etc.

suddenly without developing an alternative support.

It is very well known that the NE States suffer from the infrastructure bottlenecks and are dependent on SCA and SPA for the same" .

He further suggested that for incomplete works under different schemes, like AIBP, Tourist Circuit, ACA, SPA, etc.

the support must be continued for completion of assets created under schemes, and to avoid wastage of already invested funds.

The Chief Minister stated that for "fiscally stretched States of the NE", a large expenditure was required on maintenance of the police force and cited the case of Manipur where 20% of non-plan expenditure had been put in.

"Hence discontinuation of 'Modernisation of Police Force' Scheme would be a big blow to the NE states where law and order conditions still needed a lot of improvement," said Ibobi.

He also suggested that For NE States having International Boundary, "The ASIDES scheme under Category 'C' may be continued under Category 'A', this will be in line with the Government of India's 'Act East Policy'" .

He opined that with Government of India promoting National Integration, Tourism Support Scheme under Category 'C' might be continued under Category 'A' so that more people from mainland could visit NE States after better tourist infrastructure was developed there.

Ibobi said that implementation of BRGF scheme under Category 'C', which was now under implementation in some of the underdeveloped districts of NE States with 100% assistance would be completely jeopardised and it might be continued under Category 'A' .

He pointed out that many of the CSS might not be used by all the states; hence there should be a core of CSS to be implemented by all the States and then a basket of options to choose from.

He demanded that the funding pattern should be either 100% or at the most 90:10 % .

And flexi funds under CSS be enhanced from 10% to at least 25%, especially in case of Special Category States.

Manipur Chief Minister was accompanied by Planning Commissioner of Manipur Vineet Joshi.