Union Home Minister Amit Shah to chair Northern Zonal Council Meet on July 9

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be chairing a meeting of the Northern Zonal Council on July 9 in Jaipur. The council meeting are always a place to discuss a broad range of issues, including boundary-related disputes, security, and infrastructure-related matters including  industries, water, road, transport, and power, among other matters pertaining to forests and environment,  food security, tourism and transport,housing, education, among others.

The Northern Zonal Council comprises Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Territory of Delhi, and Union Territory of Chandigarh. According to the home ministry, the meeting will be attended by chief ministers, chief secretaries, ministers, principal secretaries and senior officers of the member states, and senior officers of the central government.

 Usually the northern zonal council meeting is preceded by a standing committee meeting of the council, in which mainly agenda items to be placed before the council are scrutinized and prioritised. According to an official, the BJP government has been regularly holding meetings of the zonal councils as part of its overall strategy to promote and strengthen cooperative and competitive federalism in the country.

The regional councils provide a forum for interesting discussion in a structured manner on issues affecting states or issues between the Centre and the states. Under the Modi Government, the official stated that the number of meetings of the zonal councils as well as its standing committees has increased by three times in the last eight years.

Regional councils work towards achieving fruitful results by engaging in discussions and exchange of views between states on important social and economic development issues. Five zonal councils in the country were set up in 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. The Union home minister serves as the chairman of each of these five zonal councils.