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No Special status to any of the states in India – Jaitley

‘The Era of special status is over’, these are the words of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he was replying to Nitish Kumar’s pitch on
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‘The Era of special status is over’, these are the words of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he was replying to Nitish Kumar’s pitch on special status for Bihar. This brings to an end the dream of Goa attaining the special status anytime in the future. Jaitley said that the constitutional award of 14th Finance Commission for sharing of tax resources between the centre and the states does not allow the scope for special status anymore. “The 14th Finance Commission had come up with the constitutional award for the states and it has fixed a formula whereby the states will share the tax revenues with the centre,” he said.

Covering the special status issue in the wrapper of packages offered by the centre to the states Jaitley said that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced the special packages to the states in which Bihar will get 1.25 lakh crore special packages over and above to existing Rs. 40,000 crore for completion of the ongoing infrastructure projects. “We always had an intention of giving more to Bihar,” He said. Jaitley assured that the 1.25 crore package will benefit the Bihar state and it should strip off the negative attitude towards the government.

It may be recalled that Goans were promised the special status by the ruling government at the time of elections but later on as the time passed by the statements changed and Amit Shah said ‘Special Status to Goa when time comes’ and its version was further transformed by the present Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar saying that ‘No Special Status to Goa’ which had closed the door for goan dream of achieving special status for Goa. Maybe that is why opposition keeps calling this government as U-turn government?

Here although instructions are given to the Bihar government but the message is sent across to whole India by Jaitley that “please stop dreaming about the status now” Mr. Jaitley is supposed to be the man behind scripting the victory of NDA government in the centre who apparently worked behind the scenes in Bihar and other states of India. He is the powerful man in present government and his statements matter a lot. With this confidence, he claims to be having the landslide victory in forthcoming elections. Jaitley claimed that his past experience gave him the full confidence of the massive support in the favour of his government.

When Goa Prism contacted Durgadas Kamat, Secretary of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee over this recent development, he said that “For Arun Jaitely the work is over. Elections are over so for BJP special status is over.  Bjp has fooled 14 lakh Goans during Lok sabha as well as assembly polls. Mr Parrikar has played with the sentiments of each of our citizen in Goa. He has to answer this issue on special status.  I hold Mr Parrikar responsible for this mess on special status. On one hand, BJP Government is advocating on the special status and on another hand they are playing into the hands of builder lobbies from Delhi who are literally running the Govt in Goa.”

Now it’s time that our readers also say something over this ‘U’ turn of ruling government who showed the carrot ‘special status’ to lure the voters to the polls and now showing the stick of governance. How much does the special status matters to the people of Goa? Why we need a special status? Did the government at all have had the intention to give the special status to Goa? If yes, then on what basis? Please do leave your most valuable comments and suggestions on this issue.

Source: PTI

Edited by Goa Prism News Desk   

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