The eight north-eastern states have submitted a joint memorandum to Prime Minister Modi seeking his intervention in the matter, Lal Thanhawla said on the sidelines of a programme here last evening.
"During our last meeting, eight chief ministers of the north-east had sent a joint memorandum to the Prime Minister and he is looking into it. We have asked for a joint appointment with the Prime Minister," Thanhawla said.
"Even though they (Centre) have not made any commitment or given any indication but something is in the air that they may restore the special states category status to the eight north-eastern states and also restore the financial grant on 90:10 formula for the north-eastern states instead of 50:50 proposal," Lal Thanhawla said.
"The finance minister (Arun Jaitley) had made some remarks favouring this and we are waiting with great expectation," he added.
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"In the process (removal of special states category status), they (the states) will be losing variety of developmental projects and infrastructure grants and all that. So they (the Centre) have to look into it and consider it sympathetically," Lal Thanhawla stressed.
The 14th Finance Commission had recommended to raise the transfer of taxes to states from 32 per cent to 42 per cent, and withdrawal of special states category status.
Until 2014-15, the special category status meant these 11 states received a variety of benefits and sops.
The major contention of the north-east states is that due to geographical reasons they suffer from economic-infrastructural deficiency which makes it difficult for them to earmark even their share of funds to meet the expenses of central schemes.