27th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council Meeting 2016
The 27th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council (28.12.2016) held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Southern Zonal Council
The Southern Zonal Council consists of Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (UT) and Andhra Pradesh.
Important issues were discussed in the Council
- Many important issues were discussed during the meeting and resolved 16 out of 22 items on agenda. The Council reviewed progress of implementation of various recommendations made in last meeting relating to Extension of High Speed Rail Corridor between Thiruvananthapuram up to Mangalore and Udupi, Peninsular Region Industrial Development Corridor, issues of fishermen, introduction of peninsular tourism trains in zone and Amendments to New Road Transport & Road Safety Bill.
- It also took up issues which relate to uniformity in allocation of funds for scholarships in proportion of population of SC/ST for all courses, revision of ceiling on profession tax by Central Government, prevention of communicable diseases, Naxalism, promotion of oilseeds and oil palm cultivation and development of Puducherry Airport.
- The deliberations of the Council were warm and cordial, in the true spirit of cooperative federalism and ended with the decision to host the next meeting in Karnataka. With this, meetings of the three Zonal Councils (Eastern, Western and Southern) are complete. The meetings of the remaining two Zonal Councils (Central and Northern) are also expected to be held soon.
- The five Zonal Councils were set up under the States’ Reorganization Act, 1956 to foster Inter-State cooperation and coordination among the States. The Zonal Councils are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on the matters of common interest in the field of economic and social planning, border disputes, linguistic minorities and inter-State transport etc.