Bhubaneswar: Eastern Zonal Council meet chaired by Amit Shah today

New Delhi: The 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council, a forum for the Centre and the states to cooperate and exchange ideas and experiences on issues related to health, security and social welfare, will be held in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

The meeting will be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand -- Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Hemant Soren, respectively -- are expected to take part in it, a Home Ministry statement said.

Patnaik, who is the host of the event, is the vice-chairman of the Eastern Zonal Council.

Common interests pertaining to infrastructure, health, security, social welfare, linguistic minorities, border disputes may be discussed and action taken. The upcoming meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council will deliberate upon nearly four dozen issues, which include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on coals, operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearance for rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across the country's borders, the statement said.

With such senior level participation of political leadership and officers, a large number of issues are likely to get resolved by consensus in the meeting.