AGARTALA, March 25 (TIWN): Chief Minister Manik Sarkar recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the winding up of the Planning Commission. The letter inked that it was random move that would only facilitate private capital profit maximization at the cost of welfare programmes. If the Planning Commission itself is dismantled, the allocation for states will be decided by the Finance Ministry which will only lead to further centralisation and bring in political bias as far as the states are concerned, the letter inked again.Briefing the content of the letter that CM Manik Sarkar written to Modi, Finance Minister Bhanulal Saha said that CM has highlighted the loss of the state Tripura due to the abolition of the planning commission. Saha said that the state Tripura would face a major loss for it and to tackle the situation the state would have a deficit of Rs. 17 thousand and 500 Crore.The NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission, is responsible for formulating what the government described as "a Bharatiya approach to development". The new organisation - NITI stands for National Institution for Transforming India - is being seen as a think tank that will foster "cooperative federalism" rather than taking a top-down approach.

Beside, on the sideline of another issue of the letter written to PM, Minister Bhanulal Saha on behalf of the state govt. expressed his displeasure over the Central Govt.’s decision of excluding the state Tripura from Special Category State. Saha said that this has left the state to get deprived from receiving special funds for the development. “The exclusion of the state from the special category state has resulted to dilute all sorts of central facilities and opportunities here in the state,” Saha said. In a letter addressed to PM Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar placed 6 points charter of demands out of which CM demanded to mark the state Tripura as a special category state so as to ensure that the pattern of funding Central Assistance continue here in Tripura and another most importantly CM demanded for a special grant from the center, Saha briefed the reporters. 

However, it worthy to be mentioned here that the highest grants-in-aid has been recommended to Jammu & Kashmir at Rs 59,666 crore, followed by Rs 40,625 crore for Himachal Pradesh. For North Eastern states like Manipur, Mizo-ram, Nagaland and Tripura, the grants-in-aid for revenue deficit for five years are higher than that of Assam at Rs 10,227 crore, Rs 12,183 crore, Rs 18,475 crore and Rs 5,103 crore respectively. National Development Council (NDC) has accorded 11 states, out of 28 states, the status of "Special Category States" to target the fund flow for better balanced growth, where Tripura has been excluded this time along with Assam.  

Recognizing the special requirements of the region and the need for significant levels of government investment, the North Eastern states have been categorized as Special Category states and Central Plan assistance to these states is provided on liberal terms. For the special category States of NER, the per capita level of Central assistance is amongst the highest in the country. During the year 2014 11 special category status States were Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim.

Special Category States (SCS) have some common characteristics like hilly and difficult terrain, low population density and /or sizable share of tribal population, strategic location along borders with neighbouring countries, economic and infrastructural backwardness and non-viable nature of state finances etc., which necessitates special considerations while framing policy. States under this category have a low resource base and are not in a position to mobilize resources for their developmental needs even though their per capita income may appear high.