Mamata with NE on status plea

T.R. Zeliang

UMANAND JAISWAL, TT, Guwahati, July 10: Nagaland chief minister T.R. Zeliang today said he had sounded out West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee a month ago to support the northeastern states' joint bid to ensure the continuation of their special category status.

Zeliang, who is here to attend the meeting of Northeast chief ministers and Union home minister Rajnath Singh tomorrow, told The Telegraph that he had moved his Bengal counterpart with the request during his meeting with her in Calcutta on June 8 on issues of mutual interests for both states.

Zeliang said he had requested the West Bengal government for help on special category states though it was not a part of the Northeast.

"I requested her (Mamata) to support our demand for restoration of special category state whenever there is a full-fledged meeting of Niti Aayog. She supports our stand. She said she would cooperate," he said.

A special category status is extended to a state so that it gets a higher share of the Centre's resource allocation to bring it on a par with developed states.

At the fourth meeting of Niti Aayog's sub-group of chief ministers on rationalisation of centrally sponsored schemes, held in Delhi on June 27, Zeliang had pushed for retention of special category status, an issue which has seen the eight chief ministers of the region, including Sikkim, join hands irrespective of their political affiliations.

Raising the issue at the meeting, he had said withdrawal of the special category status would be a "huge setback" to the development initiatives and "upset growth". He said as most of the special category states were border and insurgency-prone states, abrupt withdrawal of the status could lead to social and political problems.

Mamata Banerjee

He had also requested that a memorandum submitted earlier by the eight chief ministers, strongly urging continuation of the special category status, be reflected in the recommendation of the sub-group, which was set up by Modi in March.

The sub-group includes the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh (convener), Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh and the Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The eight chief ministers of the region had also sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April this year, seeking his intervention for continuing the special financial allocation for the region.

The letter, forwarded by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, who had met Modi in this connection, reasoned that discontinuing the status would be a "big blow" to the underdeveloped region and this "dangerous and disastrous move could not be accepted".

Zeliang said he had also discussed with his Bengal counterpart issues related to the setting up of Nagaland House in Calcutta and reimbursement of the IRB battalion deployed in Purulia in West Bengal since 2010.

"The Centre is supposed to pay Bengal which is then supposed to reimburse the amount to us. Till date, we have not received a single paisa of the Rs 92 crore. She (Mamata) assured us that she would take up the issue with the ministry of home affairs. She also called for the Nagaland House file and cleared it on June 11. It will be our third House in Calcutta. She has taken prompt action after we met her," he said.

Asked about the northeastern states approaching Mamata, Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee today said, "She has always championed the cause of the states, especially the eastern Indian states... It is natural that the chief ministers of the adjoining states will approach her to endorse their demand. This also proves that she can play a role beyond Bengal."