Special Category States in india

Special category states in India:

The decision to grant special category status to States lie with the National Development Council.

Background: Initially, three states namely Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir were accorded special category status and later on eight other states were also given special category status namely: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim and thus the list is now increased to eleven.

The bases on the basis of which NDC decides whether a State should be accorded special status or not includes:

• hilly and difficult terrain.
• low population density and or sizeable share of tribal population.
• strategic location along borders with neighboring countries.
• economic and infrastructure backwardness and non-viable nature of state finances.

OTHER IMP. DETAILS :- 

• In order to achieve the status of a special category state, a state has to project itself as socioeconomically or strategically vulnerable state.
• The Finance Commission is entrusted with the work of distribution of central tax revenues among states. The Finance Commission also recommends the principles governing non-plan grants and loans to states.
• The special category states get 30% of the total assistance for all states while the other states share the remaining 70%.
• The nature of the assistance also varies for special category states. Normal Central Assistance (NCA) is split into 90% grants and 10% loans for special category states, while the ratio between grants and loans is 30:70 for other states.