In 1969, the Planning Commission started giving special treatment to three States, namely Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir. It was felt that requirements of these three States should first be met out of the total pool of central assistance.
Later on, special status was granted to eight more States which include Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. These states were accorded special status in the Fifth Plan. Presently, 11 States enjoy the Special Category Status.
The Special Category status that the previous UPA government had promised to Andhra Pradesh on the grounds of loss of revenue may not be coming easy, as the NDA Government told the Lok Sabha recently that neither Andhra Pradesh nor Telangana meet the criteria for that status.
The National Development Council is the final authority to grant special category status. The National Development Council consists of the Prime Minster, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and members of the Planning Commission.
All the Special Category States either have a low resource base, or lack capacity to mobilize resources for development. Some of the features required for special status are:
Hilly and difficult terrain
Strategic location along borders with neighbouring countries
low population density or sizeable share of tribal population
