Zonal councils help improve Centre-state relations: Rajnath

The NDA government has laid emphasis on holding regular interactions with states through zonal councils and such exercise will be fruitful in achieving better coordination between the states and the Centre, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.

“Such zonal council meetings have been helpful in achieving better coordination between the states and the Centre,” he said while addressing the 21st meeting of the western zonal council, a forum for the Centre and the states to cooperate and exchange ideas and experiences and find ways to check disruptive forces. 

This is the fourth zonal council meeting ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.

Highlighting the deliberations of the earlier zonal council meetings, the Home Minister expressed hope that this meeting will also be fruitful. “The western zone is the economic hub of India. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa are some of the most developed states of the country,” he said.

The Home Minister said that every state should formulate a strategy to check terrorism as it has become a major challenge for the country. “As such, every state should take up this issue seriously and formulate their strategy to combat this menace,” he said.