Bhopal, Aug 21: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a Central Zonal Council meeting here on Monday wherein several key issues will be discussed, officials said on Sunday. He is expected to arrive at Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj airport at around 11 p.m. on Sunday night. The BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit president along with other party leaders would receive him.
On Monday, Shah will chair a Central Zonal Council meeting in which issues such as connectivity, power, sharing of river water, and other matters of common interests will be discussed, officials told IANS. The Central Zonal Council comprises Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The meeting will be attended by the chief ministers, ministers, chief secretaries, principal secretaries, and senior officials of the member states and the Central government, a Home Ministry official said.
As per the established procedure and practice, the zonal council meeting is preceded by a standing committee of the council in which the agenda items to be placed before the council is scrutinized and prioritized. The Narendra Modi-led Central government has been regularly holding meetings of the zonal councils as a part of its overall strategy to strengthen and promote cooperative and competitive federalism in the country, an official said. The regional councils provide a forum for discussion in a structured manner on issues affecting one or more states or issues between the Centre and the states.
Regional councils help in developing a coordinated approach through discussion and exchange of views between states on important issues of social and economic development. The meetings of the zonal councils are used by the states and union territories to share their best practices.
The councils also discuss a broad range of issues which include boundary-related disputes, security, infrastructure-related matters like road, transport, industries, water, and power, matters pertaining to forests and environment, housing, education, food security, tourism, and transport, etc. There are five zonal councils in the country. The Union Home Minister is the chairman of each of these zonal councils and the chief ministers of the host state (to be chosen by rotation every year) are the vice-chairman.
Two more ministers from each state are nominated as members by the governor.
