Eastern Zonal Council meet hit the issue hard which is troubling the States the most. The meeting attended by Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal besides, Jharkhand took a vow join hands in order to tackle leftwing extremism first and foremost.
Addressing the 22nd meeting on Monday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the leftwing extremist had been a thorn into the flesh of the States in the council and several others as well. "The Naxal issue is a major issue of the states into the council but there are other States too which are equally suffering. It has to be dealt with mutual coordination and understanding," said the Minister.
He went on underlining the efforts made by the Centre for socio-economic development of the region which is being evaluated time to time by the Ministry. Singh also stressed on dialogue with people to tame negative propaganda dangerous for the unity and integrity of the country.
The meeting also saw half of the agenda raised in the Council's meeting which took place in 2015. The member States also decided to work in tandem for modernisation of police forces, work for reducing communal tensions, control drug trade, work for green revolution in the region, development of dairy, fishery and poultry besides, the Naxal menace.
This apart, issues of river water distribution among the States, development of rail development, dedicated freight corridor and multi-sectoral development programme also came for discussion before the Chief Ministers and top officials of the states attending the meet.
Besides the Home Minister, Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Finance Minister of Odisha Pradeep Kumar Amat, Planning Minister of West Bengal Aashish Banerjee participated.
Singh, while reiterating efforts of the Centre to strengthen regional and inter-state councils, lauded the steps taken for development of Ranchi which has been included in the list of 100 Smart Cities. Talking about some of the pending issues discussed during the previous council meets, the Minister said that the Home Ministry has given direction to the concerned states to work speedily on those. It was also decided to hold the next meeting of the Eastern Region Council at Bhubaneswar of Odisha.