Source: News on Air
Context: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to chair the 31st Southern Zonal Council (SZC) meeting in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.
What Are Zonal Councils?
- High-level statutory deliberative bodies created to promote interstate cooperation, resolve disputes, and ensure coordinated socio-economic planning among States and Union Territories grouped into geographic zones.
- Established: 1956
- Statutory basis: Part III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956
- Status: statutory bodies, not constitutional bodies
The Zones
The 1956 Act divided the country into five Zonal Councils:
- Northern
- Central
- Eastern
- Western
- Southern
The sixth is separate. The North-Eastern Council was created under a different law — the North-Eastern Council Act, 1971 — and is therefore not one of the five Zonal Councils under the 1956 Act.
Composition
- Chairman: the Union Home Minister, who chairs all five Zonal Councils
- Vice-Chairman: the Chief Minister of a member State, held by rotation, each for a one-year term
- Members: the Chief Minister and two other Ministers from each State in the zone, and the Administrator of each Union Territory in the zone
- Advisers: one nominee of NITI Aayog, plus the Chief Secretary of each member State
Key Functions
- Inter-state boundary and linguistic disputes — deliberates on border friction and matters concerning linguistic minorities
- Joint socio-economic planning — common regional policies across agriculture, health, education, coastal security and disaster management
- Regional transport and infrastructure — coordinated planning for inter-state highways, railway connectivity and regional energy grids
- Water sharing and river valley coordination — mutual agreements on inter-state water sharing, irrigation canals and reservoir operations
- Technical screening via Standing Committees — each Council operates through a Standing Committee headed by the Chief Secretaries of member States, on rotation, which screens and resolves administrative issues before they reach the ministerial council
