Composition and Functions of Zonal Council

The zonal council foundation was the idea of Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru. In the republic of India, the union council of ministers have executive authority. The council is headed and supervised by the Prime minister of India. Shri Amit Shah, heading the post of Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation has stressed resolving disputes among individuals and promoting cooperative federalism through the route of Zonal council. The functions of the zonal council are widespread ranging from matters related to States to education, security, water supply, infrastructure, tourism etc.

ZONAL COUNCIL

The idea of creating a zonal council was taken up in 1956 by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. It was thrown up during the debate sessions held on the States Reorganisation Commission reports conclusion.

According to him, the States need to be reorganised or grouped into four or five zones comprising an Advisory Council. The objective was  ‘to make an environment of performing cooperative working’. among all these States. Pandit Nehru suggested this thought then when linguistic obstacles and hostilities were present as a side-effect of the re-organisation of the States. The very fabric of our nation was on the verge of getting doomed. The Antidote to this situation Nehru was to set up a top-level advisory forum to alleviate the influence of the bitterness and hostilities, and also to create healthy Centre-State and inter-state decorum to sort inter-State disputes and nurture socio-economic equilibrium and progress of the respective zones.

ZONAL COUNCIL- COMPOSITION

As mooted by Prime minister Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, there was the creation of five zonal councils via the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Part III). The current constitution of each segment of the zonal council is as follows:

• The Northern Zonal Council: It constitutes the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab,  Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Union Territory of Chandigarh and National Capital Territory of Delhi.

• The Eastern Zonal Council: It constitutes the States of Bihar, Sikkim, West Bengal Jharkhand and Orissa.

• The Central Zonal Council: It constitutes the States of Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

• The Western Zonal Council: It constitutes the States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, and the Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.

• The Southern Zonal Council: It constitutes the States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

ORGANISATIONAL LAYOUT-  THE ZONAL COUNCIL

The organisation of the established zonal council zonal consists of the following members.

• Chairman: The chairman of each subdivision of the zonal council is the Union Home minister.

• Vice-chairman: From each State, two from the Union Territories (UTs) included in the zones, a Chief Minister along with the other two Ministers as directed by the Governor, is appointed as the vice-chairman of that specific zone. It is done on a rotational basis for the tenure of one year at a given time.

• Advisors: These are the individuals,  nominated for each subdivision of the zonal council, via the Planning Commission, the Chief Secretaries or any other officer.

Union ministers are also required to attend zonal council meetings when necessary. 

RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ZONAL COUNCIL

Every zonal council is considered an advisory body. The matters where the Union and more than one state and few/all of the States included in that Council, or the Union and one or more of the States composed in that council sharing the same interest are withheld by the zonal council itself.

The zonal council advises the Central Government and each State government.

Thereby, it draws recommendations in context to the described issue. The following are the functions of the zonal council:

• The disputes and issues that rope in the States, the centre and one or more States are taken up by the Zonal Councils.

• The zonal council is a means of providing a forum for dispute resolution and the irritants existing among the centre, one state or more than one state included in the zone.

• In the zone of social planning and economics, the zonal council takes charge of any matter based on common interest.

• Affairs related to linguistic minorities/ inter-State transport.

• Disputes arising out of state reorganisation as per the States Reorganisation Act.

• A broad spectrum of issues and problems consisting of 

• security

• matters concerned with infrastructure like roads, water, industries, power etc. 

• disputes related to boundaries

• Affairs related to environmental issues and forest 

• Tourism and transport matters

• Housing 

• Educational field

CONCLUSION

The idea of creating a zonal council was taken up in 1956 by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. It was thrown up during the debate sessions held on the States Reorganisation Commission reports conclusion. There was the creation of five zonal councils via the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Part III). Every zonal council is considered an advisory body. The organisation of the established zonal council zonal consists of a chairman, vice-chairman, members and advisors. The zonal council advises the Central Government and each State government and draws recommendations in context to numerous issues.