Question: The 24th Meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council held in which city?
(a) Bhubaneswar
(b) Patna
(c) Kolkata
(d) Ranchi
Answer: (a)
Related facts:
- The 24th Eastern Zonal Council meeting was held at the Lokseva Bhavan in Bhubaneswar, Odisha under the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah.
Eastern Zonal Council:
- In the light of the vision of Pandit Nehru, five Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-III of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956.
- Eastern Zonal Council is a zonal council that comprises the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal.
- Chairman – The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these Councils.
- Vice Chairman – 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.
- Members- Chief Minister and two other Ministers as nominated by the Governor from each of the States and two members from Union Territories included in the zone.
- Advisers- One person nominated by the Planning Commission for each of the Zonal Councils, Chief Secretaries and another officer/Development Commissioner nominated by each of the States included in the Zone.
- Union Ministers are also invited to participate in the meetings of Zonal Councils depending upon necessity.
Focus of meeting:
- The meeting has discussed several issues including inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalization of coals mines, land and forest clearance of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country’s borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc.
Previous meeting:
- The 23rd Meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was held in Kolkata, West Bengal.
The main objectives of setting up of Zonal Councils are:
- 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.
Links:
https://mha.gov.in/zonal-council
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Zonal_Council
http://ddnews.gov.in/national/home-minister-chairs-24th-eastern-zonal-council-meeting-bhubaneswar