About 150 issues discussed in Zonal Councils in 2015 and over 50% resolved: Rajnath Singh

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday chaired the 22nd meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council in Ranchi.

The Eastern Zonal Council, consisting of the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, which discussed the issues like modernisation of state police forces, measures to curb communal tension and Left Wing Extremism (LWE), curbing of drug trafficking, measures for bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India, and also issues relating to fisheries, productivity of livestock and poultry to usher Blue Revolution.

The issues of sharing of water of major rivers, development of Railways, construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Multi-Sectored Development Programme in the Eastern Zone were also discussed in detail.

The Zonal Council also reviewed the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made at the previous meeting of the Council held at Patna last year.

During the meeting, there was detailed discussion on the LWE activities. Rajnath said that LWE is a common problem in some of the states including the Eastern Zone.

"Therefore, it has to be tackled jointly with regular coordination and mutual cooperation. The government is making all out efforts for infrastructure development and for socio-economic uplift of the people," he said.

The minister emphasized that these efforts need to reach to the people to counter the negative propaganda created by extremists.

The issue of internal security in general and in the eastern zone in particular was also discussed in the meeting.

The Union Home Minister mentioned that internal security matters and its challenges need to be dealt with resolute action and on the principles of cooperative federalism.

"In this connection a meeting on coastal security was chaired by him in Mumbai on June 16, 2016 of all the coastal states," he added.

He informed that important Central Schemes of LWE, such as Additional Central Assistance (ACA), Security Related Expenditure (SRE) and Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS), are under active consideration for review.

He urged the state governments to complete the fortified police stations and focus on reducing killings. Singh also said the overall LWE violence in the country had gone down by 42% in last two years.

Singh mentioned about the potential of the eastern zone and acknowledged the development potential of Ranchi which has been selected by the Central Government as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a "Smart city".

Rajnath added the government is committed to further strengthen the Zonal Councils and the Inter State Council.

He said the meetings of five Zonal Councils and their Standing Committees were held in 2015 after a long gap.

"Earlier all the Zonal Council meetings were held way back in 2005 and 1972. A total of about 150 issues were discussed by the Zonal Councils in 2015 and more than 50 percent of the issues resolved," he added

The ministry has given specific instructions to the states and the central ministries for taking further action for timely resolution of the remaining unresolved items.