Assam Assembly passed a resolution on continuation of Special Category status of the state

The Legislative Assembly of Assam on 4 March 2015 unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Union Government to continue with the special category status of the state. The Speaker of Assam Assembly is Pranab Kumar Gogoi.

The resolution passed by the State Assembly also requested the Union Government to ensure that the pattern of funding shall be either 100 percent Central share or on the principle of 90 central shares and 10 percent state share.

The resolution on Special Category status of Assam was moved in the house by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rokibul Hussein.

Reason behind the Resolution
Less contribution from Centre to implement the schemes:
In recent past, it was noticed that Assam has to bear 20 to 50 percent of share in implementing several schemes, which was against the existing funding principle of 90:10 for special category state. This scheme was not followed mainly in five centrally funded scheme and they were
• Command Areas Development (50:50)
• Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (70: 30)
• Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashastrikaran Yojana (75: 25)
• National Mission on Agriculture Extension and Technology (75: 25)
• Assistance to State for Infrastructure Development for Exports (80: 20)
Less grants for Assam in 14th Finance Commission:

The 14th Finance Commission headed by YV Reddy has allocated lesser grants to the state which is likely to affect the economic growth of the state.

According to recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, Assam will be given grants-in-aid of 3379 crore rupees to cover the revenue deficit during the period 2015-20. This grant-in-aid is the lowest among the North-Eastern states except Meghalaya which will get 1770 crore rupees as grants-in-aids.

The grants-in-aids for Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura stand at 10227 crore rupees, 12183 crore rupees, 18475 crore rupees and 5103 crore rupees respectively.

Among all the Hilly States, the highest grants-in-aid has been recommended to Jammu & Kashmir at 59666 crore rupees, followed by 40625 crore rupees for Himachal Pradesh.