The term special status has been heard more frequently over few years in the political murmurs when Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar started demanding special status for Bihar.
Though it remained a much heated topic in politics as Nitish based his support to the Congress in centre based on the demand fulfillment, yet the demand was denied owing to clear mandate to the Congress party.
But where did this term originate and what special status states mean? The history for the inception of special status states can be dated way back to 1969 when Fifth Finance Commission acting in line with the Gadgil formula, announced special status to 3 states based on their terrain, backwardness and social issues prevailing. Soon this number reached 11.
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Jammu and Kashmir was also accorded the special status state under Article 370.J & K chose to be an independent state after India and Pakistan gained independence. But Maharaja Hari Singh wanted J &Kto be a part of India as a result of which Article 370 and J & K continues to enjoy the special status with its own Constitution since Jan 1957.
Special status states enjoy certain privileges and exemptions on account of the backwardness or other barriers like unfavorable terrain that prevents it from prospering otherwise.
By the Gadgil formula, a special category state gets preference in federal assistance and tax breaks besides significant excise duty exemptions. This is to help improve the socio-economic conditions of the state by attracting large number of industrialists to establish their manufacturing units inside the state.
The intention is to bring such backward states at par with other states of the nation and attain progress in parallel with other states. A significant 30% of the Centre’s gross budget goes to the Special category states.
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The demands for awarding special status have been made by earlier leaders also. A similar demand along with compensation was made at the time Bihar was bifurcated to create Jharkhand, but the centre did not give it a compensation or special category status.
Since there are four other states demanding special status, the difficulty in Bihar getting it increases more. Unlike the 3 states that were accorded special status due to their terrain, Bihar is demanding it on account of backwardness on socio-economic front. The state has the lowest per capita income of Rs. 9702 in the country as revealed in a report by DSES (Directorate of Economics and Statistics).
Thus, Bihar lacks in development because of scarce resources and non-functional governments, giving a bad shape to growth of the state. The growing regional inequalities demand the endemic backwardness of the Bihar to be redressed.
Huge employment opportunities can be created with the special category status being announced for Bihar and help curb the poverty and unemployment in the state. Its geographic location is disadvantageous and there is a dearth of nationalism and social structure in the state of Bihar which makes it a perfect candidate for being accorded the Special Status.