BHUBANESWAR: The State Government’s demand for according Special Category State status to Odisha was once again rejected by the Centre with the Home Ministry clarifying that such ‘status’ does not exist today.
“The 14th Finance Commission has not made any distinction between special and general category States. The status of Special Category State does not exist today,” said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Rai’s reply came in response to a question of senior BJD MP Prasanna Acharya who sought to know whether Central Government would consider according to special category status to Odisha in view of repeated severe natural calamities in the State among other reasons.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had made a strong pitch for the special category status issue before NITI Aayog last month, a couple of days after pushing for ‘Special Focus State’ status for Odisha in view of its vulnerability to natural calamities.
Attending the fifth meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in June, Naveen had demanded that natural calamity be included as a criterion for according special category status to Odisha. Naveen had also raised the same demand during a meeting with the Prime Minister on June 11. He had cited the instance of cyclone Fani that battered 14 districts, killed 64 people and caused a total loss of `9,336.26 crore after making landfall near Puri on May 3.
Responding to a separate query from Acharya, the Union Minister said Odisha has submitted a memorandum seeking the assistance of Rs 5,227.68 crore from NDRF. The inter-ministerial Central team (IMCT) visited the State from June 20-22 for an on-the-spot assessment of damages caused by Fani.
Upon receipt of the report from the IMCT, further financial assistance under NDRF will be considered as per the laid down procedure.
However, in order to support the cyclone affected people, the Central Government had released in advance assistance of Rs 340.875 crore from SDRF on April 29. Further, in pursuance to the visit made by Prime Minister to Odisha after the cyclone, the Centre had released additional financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the State on May 7, Rai said.