No plan to restore special category status to states — Government

New Delhi, July 18 (PTI): There is no plan to restore special category status — which has been scrapped by think- tank Niti Aayog — to any state in the country, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Minister of State for Statistics and Planning Rao Inderjit Singh replied in the negative when Congress leader Ripun Bora asked if the government has any plans to restore special category status to Assam or any other state.

Bora also sought to know if scrapping of special category status to Assam and north-eastern states is a violation of cooperative federalism.

Many states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal are still demanding that the Centre grant them special category status despite it been scrapped.

Replying to a query on documenting better performing states to promote competitive federalism, the minister said, “We have not prepared any document…The suggestion is good and will think about it.”

To another query on steps taken to improve states’ relations after formation of Niti Aayog, the minister said the think-tank is promoting cooperative federalism and competitive federalism in the country.

1023 fast track courts set up, INR 2250 cr. provided to states from Nirbhaya Fund

The government has set up one- stop centres in 33 states and Union Territories across the country under the Nirbhaya Fund and provided INR 2,250 crore under 29 programmes to ensure women safety, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Replying to supplementaries during question hour, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the government has also set up 1,023 fast track courts under the Nirbhaya fund for providing early justice to the aggrieved women.

“The Nirbhaya Fund was set up in 2013 and till July 17, 2019, INR 2,250 crore in funds have been sent to states to implement 29 programmes for ensuring women safety,” she told the House.

She lamented that till 2014, only one project towards women safety was approved but that too was not implemented.

Irani said one-stop centres are being set up in 33 states and UTs and a total of 2.20 lakh women have been helped so far in the country through such centres.

She said the Nirbhaya Fund is being managed directly by the Finance ministry and funds are cleared by it, while an empowered committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, only gives its comments on whether the projects come under the purview of the Fund.

In her written reply, the minister said the Nirbhaya Framework provides for a non-lapsable corpus fund for safety and security of women to be administered by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of the Government of India.

“Setting up of special courts is under the domain of State Governments and High Courts. However, as part of the proposed National Mission for Safety of women (NMSW), a Scheme on the lines of other Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) for setting up Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) has been formulated for expeditious trial and disposal of pending cases of rape and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), Act.

“The Empowered Committee (EC) of Officers constituted under the Framework for Nirbhaya Fund has appraised the project for setting up of FTSCs at a total financial outlay of INR 767.25 crore,” she said in her reply.