It was held at Samvad Bhavan of Eastern Zonal Council, Patna.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
The Eastern Zonal Council meeting was held in Patna on Saturday. Representatives of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha participated in it. The meeting, held at Samvad Bhawan in Patna, was presided over by Amir Subhani, Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar. In the meeting, discussion was held on increasing mutual coordination between the states and the upcoming plan. It was a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eastern Zonal Council. The decisions taken in the past have also been assessed in the agenda of the meeting. In this, the Home Department has prepared the Government of Bihar as the nodal.
Chief secretaries of all four states joined
According to the Bihar Information and Public Relations Department, the members of the Eastern Zonal Council are the chief secretaries of the states – Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, as well as senior officials of the respective state governments, representatives of various ministries of the central government and members of the Inter-State Council Secretariat. A high level meeting was held with the Secretary. The decisions taken in the previous meetings of the Zonal Council were inspected in the meeting of the Standing Committee. Also, it was considered to include the agenda of the meeting to be held in the coming future. Of these, 16 points were carried over from the previous meeting, while another 29 points were sponsored by member state governments and various central ministries. Apart from these, 3 points related to Good Practices used by the States of Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar were also discussed. During four hours of fruitful discussion, many contentious matters between Central Ministries and Member States were resolved and it was decided to remove them from the agenda. While it was decided to place several unresolved issues for discussion before the Eastern Zonal Council meeting to be held in the near future.
Discussion on construction of Daniyawan Biharsharif-Barbigha-Sheikhpura broad gauge railway line
Several issues relating to Bihar, which were discussed during the meeting, included Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Fasttrack Special Court, Farakka Dam, Indrapuri Reservoir Project, construction of Daniyawan Biharsharif-Barbigha-Sheikhpura broad gauge railway line, auction of mineral blocks Distribution of assets and liabilities of Bihar Rajya Nirman Nigam Limited between Bihar and Jharkhand, establishment of District Mineral Foundation, implementation of National Transit Pass System and activity mapping by states and release of funds under Backward Regions Grant Fund.