Gehlot demands special status for Rajasthan

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday accused the NDA government at the Centre of working against the spirit of the federal structure by weakening the states financially.

He also demanded that Rajasthan be accorded special status as the cost of service delivery is high as compared to other states.

Gehlot said that in the federal structure system, states need to be empowered because development in villages take place through the states.

It should be the policy of the Centre that the state governments should be strong. The NDA government is going reverse. The earlier centrally sponsored schemes had 80:20 ratio, 20 percent for the states and 80 for the Centre, in all the schemes, but now the ratio is 50-50 percent, the chief minister told reporters here.

He said that states have limited resources and the coronavirus pandemic has hit their earnings hard. He said that in the Jal Jeevan Mission also, the Centre and the state's share are equal.

Referring to the conference of governors in Delhi, Gehlot said that he felt good when Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra highlighted that cost of delivery is high in Rajasthan which is geographically the largest state of the country.

Gehlot said that be it water, electricity, education, health or road infrastructure sector, the investment required in Rajasthan is high.

For a long time, there is a demand for special status to Rajasthan but the Center is not paying any heed. I hope that what the governor has said in the conference will have an impact on the Centre, he said.