Zonal Councils: In News
The Union Home Minister recently said zonal councils have transformed from being mere discussion forums into “engines of cooperation”, noting that 83% of issues taken up in their meetings have been resolved.
- The idea of the creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in 1956.
- The Zonal Councils are the statutory bodies.
- Five zonal councils were set up in 1957 under Sections 15-22 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.
- Objective is to provide a common meeting ground to the states and UTs in each zone for resolution of interstate and regional issues, fostering balanced socio-economic regional development and building harmonious Centre- State relations.
- The present composition of each of these five Zonal Councils is as follows:
- Northern Zonal Council: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Chandigarh.
- Central Zonal Council: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
- Eastern Zonal Council: Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal.
- Western Zonal Council: Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
- Southern Zonal Council: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.
