Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah presided over the 25th Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Kolkata on December 17. The meeting was attended by the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Jharkhand, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and Ministers from Odisha and other senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the States under the Council.
Key points
- The Union Home Minister said that Left Wing Extremism has almost been eliminated from the Eastern region of the country and efforts should be made to sustain this decisive dominance over Left Wing Extremism.
- He stressed that efforts should be sustained as extremism should not re-emerge in LWE-free States and that these States should develop at par with other parts of the country.
- The Union Home Minister urged the Chief Minister to ensure the creation of a district-level structure of the NCORD mechanism and its regular meetings for the prevention of narcotics.
- He said the fight against drugs in the country is now at a crucial stage and there is a need to accelerate the campaign against drugs with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
Five Zonal Councils
The five Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-III of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956. 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; and
- The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
