Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here today and urged him to retain special category status for all north-eastern states.
The Chief Ministers of all the north eastern states have been asking the Central Government to continue to maintain the special category status.
Under the provision of being a 'special state', the benefits that a state gets are: preferential treatment in getting central funds assistance, concession on excise duty, a significant 30 percent of the Centre's gross budget goes to the special category states. In addition, these states avail themselves of the benefit of debt swapping and debt relief schemes.
In centrally sponsored schemes, the special category states get it in the ratio of 90 percent grants and 10 percent loans, while the other states get 30 percent of their funds as grants.
