Eastern Zonal Council Meeting held on 16.01.2015 at Patna.

                    

The 16th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council comprising of the State of Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand was held at Patna on 16th January, 2015. The Meeting was chaired by Shri Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister and attended by the Chief Ministers of Bihar and Jharkhand States, Minister, Planning West Bengal represented Chief Minister, West Behgal as some issues requiring her urgent attention held her back home. The Meeting as also attended by the Minister for Forest & Environment and Parliamentary Affairs, Odisha and Minister for Urban Development & Housing along with Minister for Rural Development, Jharkhand.

            The Council which met after a gap of about two years, reviewed the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made at the last meeting of the Council held at Kolkata in 2013. Thereafter, the Council took up issues relating to internal security, release of water by West Bengal for upper Mahananda irrigation project in Bihar, allocation of additional rice to the State, modernization of State Police, maternal and child nutrition for addressing malnutrition, measures for Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India ( BGREI) and governance issues in relation to States for export promotion, Issues relating to Geological Survey of India (GSI) concerning States of Eastern Zone, implementation of India Statistical Strengthening Project (ISSP) in the States of the eastern zone. The Council decided to increase the cross border coordination and emphasized on timely sharing of information. The issues relating to disaster management, modernization of state police forces and Curbing of drugs trafficking in the Eastern Zone were also discussed.

            The Eastern Zonal Council also undertook items suggested by the Inter- State Council in relation to amendments in the EZC rules and in relation to holding meeting of the Council as well as of the Standing Committee regularly.

            The Five Zonal Council were set up under the Sates Reorganisation Act, 1956 to foster Inter-State co-operation and co-operation among the States, especially with regard to the issues arising out of the reorganisation of the States. Such bodies are vital for balanced progress of the individual State and that of the nation as a whole. The Zonal Councils are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, border disputes, linguistic minorities or Inter-State transport etc. They are regional fora of cooperative endeavor for States linked with each other economically, politically and culturally. Being compact high level bodies, specially meant for looking after the interests of respective Zones, they are capable of focusing attention on specific issues into account regional factors, while keeping the national perspective in view.

            In the past meetings of Zonal Councils were not taking place regularly. Serious attention was to be given to reactivate the Zonal Councils. After coming to power, the present Government realized the immense potential of these institutions in solving the regional issues, speeding up economic development of States and being a stepping-stone to the goal of cooperative federalism. Hence, the new Government has incorporated the strengthening and reactivating of the Zonal Councils together with the Inter State Council in their Manifesto. Immediately after coming to power, the Governement emphasized this issue by directing Inter State Council Secretariat to take urgent steps to convene all the Meetings of the Zonal Councils and Inter State Council pending for long years, by the end of October, 2015.

            The States coming under the Eastern Zonal Council are on low level of economic development compared to other Zones of the Country, thus it is a priority and focus of the Union Government which is determined to hasten the pace of development in the Eastern Region and Zonal Council Meetings are one significant tool to achieve this objective.

            The meeting of the Council ended with the decision to host the next meeting at Ranchi later in this year. While concluding the meeting as per the tradition, the position of Vice Chairman of the Council would now pass from the Chief Minister of Bihar to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand in the month of October, 2015.

            Thanking all the participants the Home Minister assured the Member States of the Eastern Zonal Council of all possible cooperation from the Council Secretariat.