Rajnath to chair 12th standing committee meet on Saturday

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the 12th Standing Committee meeting of the Inter-State Council (ISC) here on Saturday to discuss the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on Centre-state relations, a Home Ministry statement said.

Those taking part in the meeting are External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot.

The Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, who are the members of the Standing Committee, will also attend the meeting.

The 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of ISC was held on April 9 after a gap of 11 years.

The convening of the Standing Committee meetings twice in the same year reflects the importance attached to the promotion of harmonious Centre-State relations, the statement said.

It said that the representatives of 30 Union Ministries or departments and seven state governments have also been invited to assist the committee in its deliberations.

"Views of the state governments and the Union Ministries will be considered along with the recommendations made by the Punchhi Commission in the meeting.

"The Standing Committee will finalise its recommendations," the statement said.

The Central government on April 27, 2007 constituted the Punchhi Commission under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi to look into the new issues of Centre-state relations keeping in view the changes that have taken place in the polity and economy.

--IANS

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