Shah to chair EZC meeting in Patna today, Nitish to attend

Union home minister Amit Shah will chair the 26th meeting of Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) in Patna on Sunday.

The EZC comprises the states of Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

“The EZC will be attended by the chief ministers of the member states, along with two senior ministers from each state. The chief secretaries and other senior officers of the state governments and the Central government will also participate in the meeting,” the MHA said in a statement.

The meeting assumes significance as it would be the first time when Shah and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar would be interacting face-to-face ever since Kumar walked out of the NDA to form a new government with Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress.

Kumar had not attended the last EZC meeting held in Kolkata on December 17, 2022, on health grounds and had instead sent deputy CM Tejashvi Prasad Yadav to represent the state.

Talking to reporters earlier this week, Nitish Kumar had confirmed he would attend the EZC meeting this time.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip the EZC meeting, an official familiar with the matter said on Saturday, adding that her finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee will be representing the state.

The Bihar government is likely to raise the issue of special status to the state at the meeting, besides other issues. State’s water resource minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said demands for a special status for Bihar’s growth and Kosi high dam to save the state from flooding would be presented by the state government at the meeting.

Officials said issues like minimum price for a number of minor millets, creation of infrastructure, water sharing are also expected to be discussed. The state is also likely to raise the demand of a caste-based census in the country.

Zonal council meetings discuss a wide range of issues involving member states, including mining, central financial assistance on certain items, creation of infrastructure, land acquisition and land transfer, water sharing, implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, states’ reorganisation and other matters of common interest at the regional level.

Over the last nine years, since 2014, a total of 55 meetings of various zonal councils have been held, officials familiar with the matter said.

The zonal councils play an advisory role, but over the years, these councils have emerged as an important mechanism for promoting mutual understanding and cooperation in various fields.