New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to TDP MP Avanthi Srinivas that there is no proposal to amend or modify the criteria for grant of special category status to states.
He further said the 14th Finance Commission has not recommended any change in criteria for grant of special category status.
The Centre of late has been talking of a special financial package for AP. But even here, there are absolutely no guarantees as can be evidenced by the following paragraph in Jayant Sinha’s letter:
Any release of special assistance to AP under various provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014 will be based on the recommendations of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog). But it is also based on the availability of resources with the union government within gross budgetary support.
What this means is that even if AP is given a special financial package, it would be only for those activities mentioned in the AP Re-Organization Act. And finally, the government can simply deny AP a single penny citing lack of availability of resources.
