Zonal councils

• Union Home Minister chaired the 26^th meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Gandhinagar
• The composition of Zonal Councils is as under:
  • Northern Zonal Council– Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh; HQ- New Delhi
  • Western Zonal Council – Gujarat, Goa, and Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. HQ- Mumbai
  • Central Zonal Council– Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; HQ- Prayagraj
  • Eastern Zonal Council– Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal; HQ- Kolkata
  • Southern Zonal Council– Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry. HQ-Chennai

ABOUT ZONAL COUNCILS

• The idea of the creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in 1956.
• Five Zonal Councils (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern) were established in the year 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956.
• Objectives of setting up of Zonal Councils are as under :
  • Bringing out national integration;
  • Arresting the growth of acute State consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic tendencies;
  • Enabling the Centre and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences;
  • Establishing a climate of co-operation amongst the States for successful and speedy execution of development projects.
• Composition
  • The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of these five Zonal Councils, while the Chief Ministers of the States included in the respective Zonal Council and the administrator and lieutenant governor of the union territories are its members.
  • Two more ministers from each state are nominated by the Governor as members of the council.
  • Each Zonal Council has also constituted a standing committee at the level of chief secretaries.
• The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.

Note

• The North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972, includes Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim(added by amendment).
• HQ- Shillong