Special Category Status - Benefits and Concerns | InNews | Drishti IAS English

Hello friends my name is theis Sony and you watching in news by Dy in today's episode we will talk about special category status which is demanded by various States we will see why after the Loa elections that demand has been prominent and we will see what are the benefits and the concerns related to this particular topic [Music] okay so let's start in today's discussion we'll be talking talking about the news first and then we will come to the topic that is special category status we will see what are the different aspects which are attached to it this particular topic becomes important from your GS2 papers point of view it is related to polity section so please pay attention then we will talk about to whom it is accorded the states to whom it is accorded we will talk about the states then we will see criteria According to which this particular status is given to different states okay afterwards we will talk about certain benefits and the concerns which are related to it and in the end there will be a practice question for you to attempt okay so let's start so recently when we are talking about the general elections 2024 which has been concluded and we have come up with the results on the 4th of June and we realized that there is no single party which has secured the majority considering that there will be a coalition government and uh we are seeing that NDA that is National Democratic Alliance they are pro looking prominent and they are looking promising that they will be forming a government okay when we are talking about this ND there are certain parties like when we are talking about the major party that is BJP and BJP will be forming alliance with small parties like telu desam party this is quite prominent in Andra Pradesh and the president of this party is and Chandra Babu Naidu now coming to the news that why special category status is in the news because n Chandrababu Naidu has emerged as a key player or you can say that as a you know King maker in the elections okay so he has secured 16 seats in Loa election and now BJP needs the support from this particular party and the key demands there are speculations that it will be crucial that this party comes with BJP and that is why it is uh you know speculated that they will extract some promises and assurances from the party okay and the most important of which is the status of special category status for Andhra Pradesh okay and that is why this particular topic was in news okay now coming to what is special category status okay now SCS is a classific ation given by the center to assist development of a states which are facing geographical and socioeconomic disadvantage if there is a state which is facing some kind of disadvantage because of the geography or the socioeconomic aspect of that particular state in that case some special uh you know you can say attention can be given special Focus will be given and that is why this special category status is there okay now Constitution does not make any provision for that if we talk about the Constitution Constitution directly does not say something like that but then there was this classification which was later done on the recommendations of the fifth Finance Commission in 1969 okay so please remember that fifth Finance commission 1969 the chairman at that point of time was mahavir tagi okay so that is important for you now moving to the you know states which are having this particular States or which were given the uh State status of special category States so when we are talking about 1969 Jammu Kashmir Assam and nagaland were the states who has been given this status okay later there were 11 states which has been included in that Assam meala arunachal Pradesh nagaland Manipur mizoram tripura sikim Himachal Pradesh utarak and Telangana okay so here you can see that there are you can say Seven Sisters from our Northeastern region plus sikim so you can say that whole Northeastern region of India is included in that plus there is utarak Himachal Pradesh and Telangana which is you know given this particular status afterwards okay so that is there then telanga was the newest state which was given this particular status after that uh that was byed from the you can say Andra Pradesh okay so uh you can say summarize here that there are these states okay like Jammu Kashmir then these eight you know states of North Eastern region and then utarak Himachal Pradesh and Telangana they have been accorded this status okay now coming to the next part that is basically what are what is the current status if we see okay so what is the current status here so with the recommendation of the 14th Finance commission this whole system of this uh you know special category status that was scrapped okay so that particular commission has they have said that whatever resource Gap is there whatever issues they are facing financially for that we can increase the share we can devate the share from the center that is 32% to 42 % we do okay but we are scrapping this status okay but there are there was this exception with the exception of the northeastern region and the three Hill States okay so now when we are talking about the North State uh you know Northeastern region so s sisters are there plus sikim is there then three you can say Hill stations are there or Hill states are there so that is basically your Jammu and Kashmir then you have utarak and Himachal Pradesh so these are the states which are currently having it okay so that is about it so here you can see with the exception of Northeastern region and the three Hill States the special category status for the states has been abolished with the 14th Finance commission recommendations okay so that is the current status now coming to the what are the criteria on which this was given okay so there is this formula that is ggill Formula on the basis of which it is decided whether a particular uh state will be given this particular status or not okay now the state that is struggling with the resource shortage okay first thing that is there is a resource SST second is low income per capita state finances are not viable okay so the whatever revenues which state is generating that is not viable okay then economic and the structural development existence of sizable tribe hilly and challenging terrain as I told you geographical challenges are one of the you can say criteria over here next is border regions which are strategically located or when we are talking about the areas like arunachal Pradesh when we talk about areas like Jammu Kashmir Etc so that is important then partially populated areas okay so these are the criteria on which this status was to be given okay now coming to some benefits which are attached to it why is that these states are asking for it why is that Andra Pradesh is asking for it because when Andra Pradesh was separated for or you can say when telengana was separated from Andhra Pradesh at that point of time uh there was this UPA government and that was settled that since Hyderabad is going with Telangana and when we are talking about Andra prades that is primarily agriculture based so there will be a loss of Revenue okay and to actually you know compensate for that it will be given a special status and ultimately these are the benefits which will be attached to it and that will help in the you can say uh you know reduce the financial con of Andhra Pradesh okay that is why there was this demand after the bation of Andra Pradesh into telengana and Andra Pradesh okay but but again in 2018 there was uh you know since 2014 these demand were there okay and uh but it could not be fulfilled now what are the benefits we will see the center pays 90% of the funds required in a centrally sponsored scheme when we are talking about the centrally sponsored schemes so there are you know some funds which are given by the center some funds are given by the states okay mostly for other states that criteria is nearly 60 to 75% but when we talk about these special category States that criteria is 90% okay then unspent money in the financial year does not left and it carried forward okay so if in a financial year some money is given to the state and that is not being utilized okay so in some cases it will lapse but in this particular case it will not lapse and it will be carried forward then significant concessions are given okay concession in what in income tax excise duty custom duty Etc so these are also Financial you can say concessions which are given as for the benefit of this particular thing now 30% of the centers gross budget goes to the special category States okay so these are some benefits which are attached to the special category status okay now coming to the concerns what are the concerns which are related to it any new state granted special status may prompt demands from existing States thereby diluting the benefits now if you give status to one state okay another state will also ask S similar benefits okay so ultimately these benefits will get diluted okay so that is one thing second is for instance demands for Andra Pradesh orisa and Bihar okay so recently you must have seen that since 20 when we are talking about 2014 the Telangana was given the special status okay and after that there was Demand by Andra Pradesh and then you can see odisa and Bihar is also asking for special status then states are not economically benefited by pursuing special status because the benefits under the current systems are not very high okay so that is why the economic crunches or you can say the situation will not significantly improve by this particular thing but again uh if these are granted without any you know due diligence so there are chances that the whatever benefits are there they might get diluted other than that it causes increase on the burden on the state's finances okay so that is also a thing that ultimately whatever benefits we have talked about these are all you know Financial benefits okay and which are given by Center to the state so ultimately the burden is increasing on the uh Center okay so that is about it okay so when we are talking about this special status we have seen that to whom it is to be given what are the criteria what is the current status what is the benefit what what are the concerns so that is all about it we have discussed now for you there is a practice question so let's see the question who assigns special category status to the States President central government respective States or the governor on the request made by the central government okay so you have to attempt this question and answer in the comment box with that I would wrap up this session and if you have not subscribed to the Channel Please Subscribe it have a nice day thank [Music] you for more informative content like share and subscribe and do not forget to press the Bell icon to get the notifications

Channel: Drishti IAS : English

Views: 14,276

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Id: gVDBLnJ2F4E

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2024