The Zonal Councils

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