Zonal councils help improve Centre-state relations: Rajnath Singh

Panaji

The NDA government has laid emphasis on holding regular interactions with states through zonal councils and such exercise will be fruitful in achieving better coordination between the states and the Centre, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today.

“Such zonal council meetings have been helpful in achieving better coordination between the states and the Centre,” he said here.

He was addressing the 21st meeting of the western zonal council, a forum for the Centre and the states to cooperate and exchange ideas and experiences and find ways to check disruptive forces. This is the fourth zonal council meeting ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.

Highlighting the deliberations of the earlier zonal council meetings, the Home Minister expressed hope that this meeting will also be fruitful.

“The western zone is the economic hub of India. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa are some of the most developed states of the country,” he said.

The meeting is being attended by Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Goa — Anandiben Patel and Laxmikant Parsekar respectively, besides administrators of Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and representatives of various central ministries.

Issues relating to regional development of infrastructure for giving a boost to urban housing sector, construction of bridges, issuance of biometric identity cards and card-readers to fishermen were discussed at the meeting.

Other issues discussed include stamp duty on imports, applicability of entry tax on imports and problems pertaining to parking and congestion at ports.

The states have been divided into five zones and each zone has its council comprising the chief ministers, two ministers each and the chief secretaries. The zonal councils are headed by the Union Home Minister and each zone nominates one chief minister as its vice-chairman on rotation basis.

The zonal councils provide a forum where irritants between the Centre and states and amongst the states themselves can be resolved through free and frank discussion and consultations.

Being advisory bodies, there is full scope for free and frank exchange of views at these meetings, officials said.

Though there are a large number of other fora like the National Development Council, Inter-State Council, Governor’s and Chief Minister’s Conferences and other periodic high-level conferences held under the auspices of the Union government, the zonal councils are different, both in content and character.

They are regional fora of cooperative endeavour for states linked with each other economically, politically and culturally.

Being compact high-level bodies specially meant for looking after the interests of the respective zones, the zonal committees are capable of focusing attention on specific issues taking into account regional factors even as the national perspective is kept in view.

The main objectives behind the setting up of zonal councils include promoting national integration, arresting the growth of acute state consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic tendencies and establishing a climate of cooperation between the states for successful and speedy execution of development projects.

PTI