Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that the removing of the 'special status' accorded to the states in the North East by the Central government has posed a problem to the respective chief ministers.
"We went through various issues, especially pertaining to North East. The special status to the North Eastern states has been done away with, which is causing a problem to our chief ministers. We discussed what is the effect on the state, particularly because the financial allocation for these programmes has been slashed in very important areas," Sonia Gandhi said, while informing the media about the discussions held at the Congress Chief Ministers' meet in the national capital.
The Congress president also accused the Centre of 'appropriating' schemes launched by the UPA government.
"We also discussed our own UPA's yojanas which have been appropriated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, with slight changes here or there," she said.
The meeting, which was aimed at forming a political strategy to take on the NDA Government for its attitude towards the Congress-ruled and other non-BJP ruled states, was the first such meeting called by the Congress president after the party's drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.