Shah to chair Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Odisha tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: The 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council, comprising of the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, is scheduled to be held here tomorrow under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

While Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be the vice-chairman and host of the meeting, Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand will also participate. The CMs will be accompanied by two cabinet ministers from each state as members of the council. Last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

The upcoming meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council will deliberate upon nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on & operationalization of coals mines, land & forest clearance of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country’s borders, lack of telecom & banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc.

With such senior level participation of political leadership and officers, a large number of issues are likely to get resolved by consensus in the meeting.