Amit Shah to chair Eastern Zonal Council on 28 February

The 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council will be held on 28 February 2020 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The member states of the Council includes the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal. The meeting will be chaired by the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah. It is hosted by Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik, who is the Vice-Chairman of the Council. 

Eastern Zonal Council meeting:

♦ The meeting will address issues including inter-State water issues, investigation of heinous offences, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalization of coals mines, land and forest clearance of rail projects, cattle smuggling across India's borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues, etc. 

♦ The Council meeting will take up issues and provide a forum for resolving disputes and irritants between them. 

♦ The meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on 1 October 2018.

Participants:

Chief Ministers of Bihar Shri Nitish Kumar,  West Bengal CM Ms. Mamata Banerjee, and Jharkhand CM Shri Hemant Soren will participate in the meeting. The CMs will be accompanied by 2 Cabinet Ministers from each State of the council, as members of the Council. Also, Chief Secretary & other senior officers of the States, Secretaries/Additional Secretaries and other senior officers of the Central Government will also participate in the council meeting.

Five Zonal Councils:

Five Zonal Councils were formed in 1957. The councils were set up under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956. The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these 5 Zonal Councils, and the Chief Minister of the host State is the Vice-Chairman. The host will be chosen by rotation every year. Also, two more Ministers from each State are nominated as Members by the Governor. 

The Zonal Councils will hold a meeting to discuss a broad range of issues, which include security, boundary related disputes, infrastructure-related matters like road, transport, industries, water, and power, etc., issues on forests & environment, housing, education, etc.