Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the 27th meeting of the Western Zonal Council in Pune on Saturday (February 22). We look at the formation of these bodies in the 1950s as an 'antidote' for the linguistic hostilities and bitterness from the re-organisation of the states on a linguistic basis, and what their functions are. Idea mooted by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru The idea of creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956 when during the course of debate on the report of the States Reorganisation Commission, he suggested that the states proposed to be reorganised may be grouped into four or five zones having an Advisory Council “to develop the habit of cooperative working” among these states, say the records of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). “This suggestion was made by Pandit Nehru at a time when linguistic hostilities and bitterness as a result of re-organisation of the states on linguistic patterns were threatening the very fabric of our nation. As an antidote to this situation, it was suggested that a high-level advisory forum should be set up to minimise the impact of these hostilities and to create healthy inter-state and Centre-State environment with a view to solving inter-state problems and fostering balanced socio economic development of the respective zones. In the light of the vision of Pandit Nehru, five Zonal Councils were set up as per the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the MHA records say. Members of the Zonal Councils The present composition of the Zonal Councils is as follows: The Northern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh. The Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal. The Western Zonal Council, comprising the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry. North Eastern Council was set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972 with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland as its members. The state of Sikkim which was earlier in the Eastern Zonal Council was included in the North Eastern Council in 2002. Composition of Zonal Councils Each Zonal Council has a Standing Committee consisting of Chief Secretaries of the member states. These Standing Committees meet from time to time to resolve the issues or to do necessary groundwork for further meetings of the Zonal Councils. Senior officers of the Planning Commission and other Central Ministries are also associated with the meetings depending upon necessity. The composition of each council is as follows: The Union Home Minister is the chairman of each of these council. 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. 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. One person nominated by the planning commission for each of the Zonal Councils, Chief Secretaries and another officer nominated by each of the states included in the Zone. In 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the nomination of the Union Home Minister as ex-officio chairman of North Eastern Council and the Minister Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) to serve as Vice Chairman of the Council. Role of Zonal Councils The MHA has said that the Zonal Councils provide an excellent forum where irritants between Centre and States and among states can be resolved through free and frank discussions and consultations. The councils act as regional forums of cooperative endeavour for states linked with each other economically, politically and culturally. The zonal councils can discuss matters of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, matters concerning border disputes, linguistic minorities or inter-state transport and matters connected with the reorganization of the states under the States Reorganisation Act. A press statement from the MHA on Friday stated, "In the Modi government, the role of Zonal Councils has been changed from advisory to action platform to make them effective.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the need to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism for the all-round development of the country.”
