TNI Bureau: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday ruled out the special category status to any State.

Nirmala Sitharaman who is on a two-day visit to Odisha said this while responding to queries on the sidelines of the post Budget discussion in Bhubaneswar.

The Finance Minister said that such status will not be accorded to any other State in future as per the recommendations of the Finance Commission.

Telangana, which is the newest State of the country, has been granted the status after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, Sitharaman said.

It is pertinent to mention here that Odisha has been seeking special category status for last many years by citing frequent occurrences of natural calamities like cyclones and floods.