Union Home Minister Amit Shah to chair Eastern Zonal Council Meeting in Odisha today

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) which is slated to take place in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The Zonal Councils provides a sublime forum where problems between Centre and States, and also those amongst States, can be resolved through discussions and consultations.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, will also participate in the meeting that will be chaired by Home Minister Shah. Furthermore, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be the vice-chairman and host of the meet.

Apprising about the meeting, the Home Ministry stated that the meeting will take place on February 28 at 10:30 am in Lok Sewa Bhawan, Bhubaneswar. The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

According to the Home Ministery, the upcoming meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offenses, cattle smuggling across country's borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues, etc.

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Zonal Council Meetings

The idea of creation of Zonal Councils was brought up by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1956 when during the course of debate on the report of the States Re-organisation Commission, he suggested that the States proposed to be reorganised may be grouped into four or five zones having an Advisory Council 'to develop the habit of cooperative working' among the States.

The main objectives of setting up of Zonal Councils are to bring out national integration, enable the Centre and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences as well as to establishing a climate of co-operation amongst the States for successful and speedy execution of development projects.

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(With Inputs from ANI)