The Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand will be held in lucknow on Monday. The Chief Ministers meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to discuss on the Centre-State and inter-State relations and internal security.
“The issues flagged by the Standing Committee, consisting of the Chief Secretaries of the States, relates to increasing density and upgradation of existing roads, child welfare programmes, control of left Wing Extremism, improvement of the Airport Infrastructure in the States, release of CAMPA funds and modernisation of police forces. There are likely to be many more substantial issues of Centre-State and Inter-State relations that the Chief Ministers would like to raise in the meeting,” said Home Ministry in a statement.
The Zonal Councils are meant to settle the Inter-State issues and the specific issues related to Centre-State. There are five Zonal Councils, namely Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central Zonal Council which are advisory bodies and discuss any matter in which some or all of the States represented in a Council have a common interest. These Councils advise the Central and State Governments on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, linguistic minorities, inter-State transport, matters connected with or arising out of the reorganisation of States and matters concerning border disputes.