Bihar Rakes Up Special Status Demand, AP Observes Keenly

Fifteenth Finance Commission has started its Ground Work to decide the Allocations for the Period of five fiscals starting from April 1st, 2020. The Commission members are touring various states to find out the Ground Reality. The Finance Panel Chief NK Singh made some interesting comments about the Special Status Demand of Bihar.

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NK Singh stated that the commission is “sympathetically” considering Bihar’s long-pending demand for special category status, an issue being raked up Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for a long time. “Although considering the special category status demand was not in our ambit, the Commission will take a sympathetic view of the demand of grants by the state government.

Andhra Pradesh Government which is also demanding the same will be keenly observing these developments. NK Singh also mentioned in Bihar that even earlier the Finance Commission did not deal with the issue of special category status which dispels the claims of the Center saying that 14th FC rejected Special Status to Andhra Pradesh.

One more interesting thing to note is that N K Singh, then a JD(U) MP, had taken up Bihar’s demand for special category status with then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Andhra Pradesh Government has prepared its own list of demands which it is going to present before the 15th Finance Commission.