AMRITSAR:Mr Charanjit Singh Gumtala president of Amritsar Vikas Manch has demonstrated special status for Punjab.
he said that this issue was not raised by any political party during the electionBecause now elections are taking place but this issue is not in the election intention of any party. Therefore, all the political parties of Punjab should include, among other demands of Punjab, special status for the industrial development of the state.
Mr Gumtala said that at present there are 11 states in India, which are placed in special category. These include 1. Manipur 2. Meghalaya 3. Mizoram 4. Arunachal Pradesh 5. Tripura 6 Sikkim 7. Uttara Khand 8. Himachal Pradesh 9. Assam 10. Jammu and Kashmir 11. Nagaland. The 5 states which are seeking special status include 1. Bihar 2. Andhra Pradesh 3. Rajasthan 4. Goa 5. Orissa.
Article 275 of the Constitution of India gives the Central Government the right to provide special financial assistance to any State;ge added.
He further said that Special status states are exempt from excise tax, customs duty, corporate tax, income tax and other taxes. Second, in all the schemes of the Central Government, 90% is given by the Center as a grant and the remaining 10% is given as a loan but there is no interest on it. While the Center gives only 30% to the general states as a grant, the remaining 70% is given as a loan. This means that interest has to be paid on it. The amount that special states do not spend in the budget year can be spent next year. In the rest it is killed.
He said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been seeking Bihar's inclusion in the 'Special Category States' since 2007. He reiterated this demand on December 13, 2021 but his ally BJP Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi did not agree. Nitish Kumar says that the Center has given special status to some states and they get 90:10 assistance from the Center. This means that the Center gets 90% and the state gets only 10% of the projects received by the state from the center. The rest of the states are the opposite. They have to pay in the ratio of 80:20 or 60:40.