What is the composition of Zonal Councils?
Q. The chairman of Zonal Council is -- Published on 27 Feb 17a. The home minister of central government.
b. Vice-President of India.
c. The chief minister & is nominated by PM of India.
d. A union minister & is nominated by President of India.
ANSWER: The home minister of central government.
- The Zonal Councils are the statutory and non-constitutional bodies, established by States Reorganization Act, 1956.
- The act divided the country into five zones (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern) and provided a zonal council for each zone.
- While forming these zones, several factors have been taken into account which include- the natural divisions of the country, the river systems and means of communication, the cultural and linguistic affinity and the requirements of economic development, security and law and order.
- The zonal councils aim at promoting cooperation and coordination between states, union territories and the Centre.
- They discuss and make recommendations regarding matters like economic and social planning, linguistic minorities, border disputes, inter-state transport etc.
- They are only deliberative and advisory bodies.
The objectives (or the functions) of the zonal councils are as follows -
1. To achieve an emotional integration of the country.
2. To help in arresting the growth of acute state-consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic trends.
3. To help in removing the after-effects of separation in some cases so that the process of reorganization, integration and economic advancement may synchronize.
4. To enable the Centre and states to cooperate with each other in social and economic matters and exchange ideas and experience in order to evolve uniform policies.
5. To cooperate with each other in the successful and speedy execution of major development projects.
6. To secure some kind of political equilibrium between different regions of the country.
Each zonal council consists of the following members -
1. Home minister of Central government.
2. Chief Ministers of all the States in the zone.
3. Two other ministers from each state in the zone.
4. Administrator of each union territory in the zone.
Besides, the following persons can be associated with the zonal council as advisors (i.e., without the right to vote in the meetings) -
1. a person nominated by the Planning Commission;
2. Chief Secretary of the government of each state in the zone; and
3. Development commissioner of each state in the zone.
- The home minister of Central government is the common chairman of the five zonal councils.
- Each chief minister acts as a vice-chairman of the council by rotation.
- They hold office for a period of one year at a time.
