Jairam and Montek to Meet For Discussion on Giving Special Status to Seemandhra
- Jairam Ramesh will be meeting Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, in order to make a case for Seemandhra for ‘Special Category State’ status, on the basis of loss of revenue. He is one of the main members of the Group of Ministers who drafted the Telangana Bill. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, will then write to the National Development Council to inform about the decision taken by them.
- There are specific jurisdictions of NDC on the criteria for granting any state with special category status. According to the present NDC norms, Seemandhra does not quality for winning that status.
- According to the original GOM, the revenues generated from Hyderabad were to be shared equally between Telangana and Seemandhra.
- That idea was later dropped, as experts of constitution pointed out that the revenue of one state cannot be shared with other state. So the only option left is to grant Seemandhra, with the Special Category State Status for five years, in order to reimburse it for the loss of revenue from Hyderabad
- It is estimated that Seemandhra is suffering revenue loss of anything between Rs. 9,000 crore and Rs. 15,000 crore, from missing out on levies such as stamp duty and property tax etc
Exams Perspective:
- Special Category status
- NDC
- Group of Ministers (GoM)