AIR Spotlight: Role of Zonal Councils in Cooperative Federalism

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio Newsonair. In this program, many eminent panelists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation. This article features discussion on Role of Zonal Councils in Cooperative Federalism

Participant – Sandeep Phukan, Political Analyst 

Moderator – Chetan Chauhan, Journalist

Introduction: 

• 23rd Central zonal council meeting was recently held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh under the chairmanship of the Union Home Minister.
• Issues of left wing extremism,power, connectivity, sharing of river water and other matters of common interests were discussed.
• The Central Zonal Council comprises Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
• The meeting was attended by chief ministers, chief secretaries, principal secretaries and senior officers of the member states and Union government.
• As per the established practice and procedure, the zonal council meeting is preceded by a standing committee of the council in which the agenda items to be placed before the council are scrutinized and prioritized.

Zonal Councils:

• There are 05 zonal councils which were set up  under States Reorganization Act, 1956.
• They are advisory bodies and were established to promote interstate cooperation and coordination.
• The Union home minister is the chairman of each of these zonal councils and chief ministers of the host state (to be chosen by rotation every year) is the vice-chairman.

Role of Zonal councils in Cooperative Federalism:

• The Zonal Councils provide a stage where differences between Center and States and amongst States can be resolved through free and open discussions and consultations. 
• Zonal Councils are different compared to other high level bodies for interstate communication both in content and character as they enable the Center and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences.
• Zonal councils are  cooperative endeavors for States linked with each other economically, politically and culturally. They are capable of focusing attention on specific issues taking into account regional factors, while keeping the national perspective in view.
• They bring out national integration and arrest the growth of severe State consciousness, linguism, regionalism and particularistic tendencies.
• They establish a climate of co-operation amongst the States for successful and speedy execution of development projects.

Progress of Zonal Council meetings in past Eight years:

• Overall 19 Zonal council meetings and 25 standing committee meetings  have took place in the past eight years.
• Twenty seven out of thirty issues raised in the Western Zonal Council meetings are resolved.
• North Eastern Council have provided various solutions and roadmaps for  a unified and coordinated Regional Plan.
• Recent signing of joint statement by Assam and Mizoram governments on resolving their border dispute can be attributed to efforts of North Eastern council.
• Zonal council apart from resolving the issues, also gives push to infrastructure projects.
• The participating States have also been utilizing the Zonal Council for inducing greater financial involvement of the Central Government in certain spheres.
• When Left Wing Extremist (LWE) violence was at its peak in 2009, the number of incidents of Left Wing Extremism was 2,258 which decreased to 509 in 2021 due to security forces strengthening and infrastructure development in LWE affected areas.
• The government has opened about 5,000 post offices and more than 1,200 bank branches in the last 03 years in Left Wing Extremism affected areas.
• More than 2,300 mobile towers are being installed in the first phase and installation of 2,500 mobile towers in the second phase is going on to speed up telecom services.

Conclusion: Zonal council provides a decentralized way of discussing issues with States. This is in the spirit of PM Modi’s statement  of considering  States equal partners in India’s progress. Instead of all states going to the union government to discuss and resolve their issues, the union government is going to the States.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

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