Cooperative federalism key for India's growth: Rajnath Singh
Vijayawada, Dec 12 (INN): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 26th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council consisting of the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Pudduchery (UT) here on Saturday.
Emphasising the importance of cooperative federalism, the Union Home Minister said that the forum of Zonal Council is one of the significant means to achieve the goal of cooperative federalism that holds the key for the growth and progress of the country. He said that the present Government from the very beginning has attached utmost importance to strengthening the institutions of Zonal Councils and the Inter-State Council. These institutions have immense potential to resolve a slew of nagging problems by active cooperation between Centre and States and among the States through healthy discussions, Rajnath Singh added.
Rajnath Singh informed the participants that the government has been able to hold the meetings of all the Zonal Councils in this calendar year. All meetings of the Standing Committees of Zonal Councils had also been convened before the meetings of the Zonal Councils. He said that the government has also reconstituted the Inter-State Council recently, which was pending for long time and its meeting will also be convened soon.
The Union Home Minister mentioned that the country was facing serious challenges from Left wing Extremism which needs to be countered effectively and collectively with the States. Among other challenges, Coastal security in the Southern States needs to be strengthened, he added.
Earlier, the Union Home Minister expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims whose lives have been lost in the most devastating floods witnessed in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry recently. He assured that the Union Government will continue to do everything possible to ameliorate the sufferings of the people affected by the floods and in providing relief and rehabilitation operations.
The Council reviewed the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made at the previous meeting of the Council held at Bangalore in 2012. Thereafter, the Southern Zonal Council took up other issues like coastal security, peninsular region industrial corridor, introduction of peninsular tourism trains in the region, coordinated and uniform approach in granting industrial incentives, finalization of inter-state reciprocal transport agreement, curbing use of unacceptable levels of pesticides and ripening agents in fruits and vegetables, maintaining uniform standards in the courses for nursing and allied health services, power transmission lines etc.
The five Zonal Councils were set up under the States Reorganization Act, 1956 to foster Inter-State co-operation and co-ordination among the States. The Zonal Councils are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, border disputes, linguistic minorities or inter-State transport etc. The Zonal council focuses attention on specific issues taking into account regional factors, while keeping the national perspective in view.
Over the last many years, it has been observed that the meetings of Zonal Councils were not taking place on yearly basis. In fact it was only in the years 1957, 1958, 1972 and 2005 that the meetings of all the Zonal Councils were held. Particularly after 2005, the Zonal Councils meetings were not held as frequently as they ought to have been held. Keeping this in mind in 2014 the Government decided to convene all the meetings of the Zonal Councils within one year and directed Inter-State Council Secretariat to take necessary preparatory steps to achieve this goal which the Secretariat has accomplished.
During this year the other zonal council meetings namely East, Central, North and West have all been held in that order, and the cycle is now complete with this meeting of Southern Zonal Council today. Apart from this, the meetings of North East Zone with all the Chief Ministers of their NE States had also been held under the Chairmanship of the Union Home Minister. In these meetings, nearly over 100 agenda items were discussed, several were resolved and on the others, directions were issued to the concerned State Governments and Central Ministries for taking appropriate action. Follow up actions have been taken on all those items.
The meeting was attended by the AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy and Finance Minister Eatala Rajender, AP's Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Karnataka Home Minister, Kerala's Minister for Water Resources, Tamil Nadu's Finance Minister and Lt. Governer, Puducherry. Several senior officers from Central and State Governments also participated in this meeting.
The meeting of the Council ended with the decision to host the next meeting at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Vijayawada, Dec 12 (INN): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 26th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council consisting of the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Pudduchery (UT) here on Saturday.
Emphasising the importance of cooperative federalism, the Union Home Minister said that the forum of Zonal Council is one of the significant means to achieve the goal of cooperative federalism that holds the key for the growth and progress of the country. He said that the present Government from the very beginning has attached utmost importance to strengthening the institutions of Zonal Councils and the Inter-State Council. These institutions have immense potential to resolve a slew of nagging problems by active cooperation between Centre and States and among the States through healthy discussions, Rajnath Singh added.
Rajnath Singh informed the participants that the government has been able to hold the meetings of all the Zonal Councils in this calendar year. All meetings of the Standing Committees of Zonal Councils had also been convened before the meetings of the Zonal Councils. He said that the government has also reconstituted the Inter-State Council recently, which was pending for long time and its meeting will also be convened soon.
The Union Home Minister mentioned that the country was facing serious challenges from Left wing Extremism which needs to be countered effectively and collectively with the States. Among other challenges, Coastal security in the Southern States needs to be strengthened, he added.
Earlier, the Union Home Minister expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims whose lives have been lost in the most devastating floods witnessed in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry recently. He assured that the Union Government will continue to do everything possible to ameliorate the sufferings of the people affected by the floods and in providing relief and rehabilitation operations.
The Council reviewed the progress of the implementation of the recommendations made at the previous meeting of the Council held at Bangalore in 2012. Thereafter, the Southern Zonal Council took up other issues like coastal security, peninsular region industrial corridor, introduction of peninsular tourism trains in the region, coordinated and uniform approach in granting industrial incentives, finalization of inter-state reciprocal transport agreement, curbing use of unacceptable levels of pesticides and ripening agents in fruits and vegetables, maintaining uniform standards in the courses for nursing and allied health services, power transmission lines etc.
The five Zonal Councils were set up under the States Reorganization Act, 1956 to foster Inter-State co-operation and co-ordination among the States. The Zonal Councils are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, border disputes, linguistic minorities or inter-State transport etc. The Zonal council focuses attention on specific issues taking into account regional factors, while keeping the national perspective in view.
Over the last many years, it has been observed that the meetings of Zonal Councils were not taking place on yearly basis. In fact it was only in the years 1957, 1958, 1972 and 2005 that the meetings of all the Zonal Councils were held. Particularly after 2005, the Zonal Councils meetings were not held as frequently as they ought to have been held. Keeping this in mind in 2014 the Government decided to convene all the meetings of the Zonal Councils within one year and directed Inter-State Council Secretariat to take necessary preparatory steps to achieve this goal which the Secretariat has accomplished.
During this year the other zonal council meetings namely East, Central, North and West have all been held in that order, and the cycle is now complete with this meeting of Southern Zonal Council today. Apart from this, the meetings of North East Zone with all the Chief Ministers of their NE States had also been held under the Chairmanship of the Union Home Minister. In these meetings, nearly over 100 agenda items were discussed, several were resolved and on the others, directions were issued to the concerned State Governments and Central Ministries for taking appropriate action. Follow up actions have been taken on all those items.
The meeting was attended by the AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy and Finance Minister Eatala Rajender, AP's Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Karnataka Home Minister, Kerala's Minister for Water Resources, Tamil Nadu's Finance Minister and Lt. Governer, Puducherry. Several senior officers from Central and State Governments also participated in this meeting.
The meeting of the Council ended with the decision to host the next meeting at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
News Posted: 12 December, 2015
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