New Delhi, May 09: The Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair the 28th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council comprising of the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh. The meeting is to be held at Chandigarh on May 12, 2017. The Chief Ministers in the zone, some Ministers, Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the State Governments and Central Government will attend the meeting.
The 27th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council was held at New Delhi on April 25, 2015. In this meeting, 25 items were taken up, out of which 14 items were disposed off. The 17th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Northern Zonal Council was held on the May 26, 2016 at Srinagar to scrutinize the agenda for this meeting. In that meeting 35 agenda items were taken up, out of which 28 items were resolved at the level of the Standing Committee. 18 items (including sub-items) will be taken up for discussion and decisions in the 28th meeting of Northern Zonal Council.
Five Zonal Councils viz. Central, Western, Northern, Southern and Eastern have been established under the State Reorganization Act, 1956. These Zonal Councils are advisory bodies and may discuss any matter in which some or all of the States represented in a Council, or the Union and one or more of the States represented in a Council, have a common interest and advise the Central Government and the Government of each State concerned as to the action to be taken on any such matter. In particular, a Zonal Council may discuss, and make recommendations with regard to any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning; any matter concerning border disputes, linguistic minorities or inter-State transport; and any matter connected with, or arising out of, the reorganization of the States.
The Zonal Councils aim to discuss and resolve many substantive issues of development concerning regional interest and national programmes through its consultative mechanism.
