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Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi welcomes his Jharkhand counterpart Raghubar Das as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh looks on, in Patna.(Source: Express Photo by Prashant Ravi)
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that Centre would give adequate funds to eastern states to fight Naxalism. Presiding over the meeting of Eastern Zonal Council, Singh said the state goverments should appoint “energetic and committed” officials in sensitive areas to ensure good governance in Naxal-hit areas of Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik stayed away from the council meet, but sent their representatives. Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and newly-appointed Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das attended the meeting and took up issues of Naxalism and better inter-state coordination.
Manjhi took over matters of curtailment of central funds and Bihar’s dues of Rs 970 crore from the Centre by way of repairing national highways. Manjhi stressed for better Centre-state coordination.
Bihar Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said: “There were 40 agendas of meeting, including internal security, tackling Naxalism, Centre-state coordination and additional allocation of central funds. Proper monitoring of central schemes was also taken up.”
While there was discussion on release of water by Bengal in upper Mahananda, Bihar government demanded additional rice procurement, maternal and child nutrition. There was also discussion on ways of bringing green revolution in eastern zone. The next meeting of eastern zonal council will be held in Ranchi later this year.
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