Ranchi. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the 22nd meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council held at Jharkhand capital Ranchi June 27.
The Eastern Zonal Council, consisting of the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, discussed the issues like modernisation of state police forces, measures to curb communal tension and Left Wing Extremism (LWE), curbing of drug trafficking, measures for bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India, issues relating to fisheries, productivity of livestock and poultry to usher Blue Revolution.
The issues of sharing of water of major rivers, development of railways, construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Multi–Sectoral Development Programme in the Eastern Zone were also discussed in detail. The Zonal Council also reviewed the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made at the previous meeting of the Council held at Patna last year.
During the meeting, there was detailed discussion on the LWE activities. The Union Home Minister, speaking on the occasion, said LWE is a common problem in some of the states including the states of the Eastern Zone. Therefore, it has to be tackled jointly with regular coordination and mutual cooperation.
The Government of India is making all out efforts for infrastructure development and socio-economic uplift of the people. Regular review meetings are held at the level of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Home Minister also emphasised that these efforts need to reach to the people to counter the negative propaganda created by extremists.
The issue of internal security in general and in the Eastern Zone in particular was also discussed in the meeting. Mr Singh mentioned the internal security matters and its challenges need to be dealt with resolute action and on the principles of cooperative federalism. In this connection a meeting on coastal security was chaired by the Minister in Mumbai June 16 of all the coastal states.
The Home Minister informed important Central Schemes, such as Additional Central Assistance (ACA), Security Related Expenditure (SRE) and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), are under active consideration for review. He urged the state governments to complete the Fortified Police Stations and focus on reducing killings.
Mr Singh said the overall LWE violence in the country had gone down by 42 per cent in last two years. The Minister mentioned about the potential of the Eastern Zone and acknowledged the development potential of Ranchi city which has been selected by the Central Government as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a “Smart cityâ€.
The Home Minister said the Government is committed to further strengthen the Zonal Councils and the Inter State Council. He said the meetings of five Zonal Councils and their Standing Committees were held in 2015 after a long gap. Earlier, all the five Zonal Council meetings were held in one year only in the years of 1972 and 2005. A total of about 150 issues were discussed by the Zonal Councils in 2015 and more than 50 per cent of the issues were resolved. The Ministry of Home Affairs has given specific instructions to the states and the Central Ministries for taking further action for timely resolution of the remaining unresolved items, the Home Minister added.
As advised by the Home Minister, the Chief Ministers of Bihar and Jharkhand decided to resolve their pending issues between themselves. Agreeing with the advice of the Home Minister, they asked their Chief Secretaries to hold the meeting at the earliest and settle the bifurcation and other pending issues amicably.
The meeting was attended by Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Odisha Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat, West Bengal Minister for Planning Dr Ashish Banerjee and ministers from Bihar and Jharkhand and senior officers from the Central and state governments. It was decided the 23rd meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council will be held at Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
