Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah chaired the 24th meting of the Eastern Zonal Council at Bhubhaneswar (Odisha) on February 28, 2020.
Other Dignitaries attending the meeting included Chief Minister Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik, as Vice Chairman and host; CM Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar; CM West Bengal, Ms. Mamata Banerjee; Finance Minister, Jharkhand, Shri Ramesh Oraon and senior officers from the Central and State Governments.
Discussion
Various issues were discussed during the meeting, including the issues related Phulbari Dam under the agreement of 1978 signed by the States of Bihar and West Bengal on Upper Mahananda Water Scheme, Extension of Nuapada-Gunupur-Therubali Rail Link Project in northern districts of Odisha, Determination of Pension liability between Bihar and Jharkhand, Use of State Government land by Coal companies of GOI, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) – land transfer by CPSU, Speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children. Prevention of cattle smuggling/illegal transportation of cattle to the Indo-Bangladesh Border, Lack of telecom and bank connectivity in Odisha, Illegal cultivation and trading of hemp / cannabis in the State of Odisha, Revision of royalty on Coal, Inadequate funding and delayed Land related issues of Petroleum projects etc. Out of the 48 items discussed today, 40 were resolved in the meeting.
About Zonal Council
The idea of creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1956.
In the light of the vision of Pandit Nehru, five Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-III of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956. The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these Councils. The present composition of each of these Zonal Councils is as under:
- The Northern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh;
- The Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh;
- The Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and West Bengal;
- The Western Zonal Council, comprising the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli;
- The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The North Eastern States i.e. (i) Assam (ii) Arunachal Pradesh (iii) Manipur (iv) Tripura (v) Mizoram (vi) Meghalaya and (vii) Nagaland are not included in the Zonal Councils and their special problems are looked after by the North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972. The State of Sikkim has also been included in the North Eastern Council vide North Eastern Council (Amendment) Act, 2002 notified on 23rd December 2002. Consequently, action for exclusion of Sikkim as member of Eastern Zonal Council has been initiated by Ministry of Home Affairs.
