Government crippling northeastern states: Congress

The Congress on Monday accused the NDA government at the Centre of "crippling" the elected governments in the northeastern states by withdrawing special category status and discontinuing central 90:10 funding pattern for all sponsored schemes for the region.

"The central government has withdrawn the special category status of the north-eastern states besides discontinuing its 90 percent grant given to the states in the region. Therefore, development activities in the region will be affected," Congress leader V. Narayanasamy claimed while briefing media persons at the Congress Bhavan here.

Narayanasamy is Congress incharge of seven north-eastern states of which four - Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh - are ruled by the party.

The former union minister said all centrally sponsored schemes and special packages and fund flowing from the North Eastern Council for the state governments in the region were put on the back-burner.

"Schemes working on 90:10 formula for all north-eastern states have been pared down to 50 percent grant from the Centre; the NDA government has also scrapped special schemes apart from making North Eastern Council non-functional," Narayanasamy said.

He accused the Narendra Modi government of not providing central assistance for ongoing developmental projects of the state governments.

"They have even stopped grant sanctioned by the previous United Progressive Alliance government. Financially, the north-eastern states have been crippled by the central government," he said.