By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 15, 2019: The Centre is not considering any proposal to grant special category status to the state, Union minister of state for finance, Anurag Singh Thakur, told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

In a written reply to a question by BJD MP Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Thakur said there was no move to increase the Centre’s share of funds for centrally sponsored schemes in Odisha.

For the last several years, the Naveen Patnaik government has been demanding for special category status for Odisha as the eastern state is hit by frequent natural calamities. It has also demanded that funds for centrally sponsored schemes be shared in the ratio of 90:10 by the Centre and the state, as is the case with the northeastern and the Himalayan states.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, Naveen had urged him to declare Cyclone Fani-hit Odisha as a ‘special focus’ state and grant it the same benefits as special category states get for a specific period of time. “This will not only help Odisha but any state of the country that is hit by a major natural calamity,” Naveen was quoted as saying on June 11.

The state had also sought five lakh rural houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) on a fund-sharing pattern of 90:10 to compensate for the damage caused by Fani. Around 5.6 lakh houses were damaged in the cyclone.