Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has geared up for the ensuing Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) Meet. The 24th EZC Meet which will be held at Bhubaneswar on February 28 will be addressed by union home minister Amit Shah.

The delegates from West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha along with high officials from Government of India would participate in the Meet. Various inter-state concerns along with issues relating to developmental schemes and programs would be deliberated in the Meet.

Sources say, the issues relating to adoption of ‘postage stamp method’ for unified power tariff in different states, disaster resilience infrastructure, rail link projects, operation of mines, financial inclusion, grants to Gram Panchayats under 14th Finance Commission, devolution of powers to panchayat bodies, coal royalty, implementation of direct benefit transfer, telecom and internet connectivity, use of adhar data base, timely release of central grants etc may figure in the deliberations.

A high level meeting was held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Asit Tripathy, here on Thursday to review the preparation for the coming EZC Meet. The principal secretary home Sanjiv Chopra outlined the issues for discussion.

Reviewing the department wise progress, chief secretary Tripathy directed concerned departments to feed updates status of various issues likely to come up in the meet to home department by Thursday afternoon. Further, he directed that since EZC would be a prestigious inter-state event all the arrangements should be done in the best befitting manner for its smooth carry over.

Development commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra,and additional chief secretary Steel & mines, Raj Kumar Sharma were present.