Bhubaneswar: The 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eastern Zonal Council was held here on Tuesday. The meeting, organised by the Inter-State Council Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs, in association with the Government of Odisha, was chaired by Ms. Anu Garg, Chief Secretary, Odisha, as the host State.
Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, participated in the meeting.
Ashish Srivastava, Secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat, Pratyaya Amrit, Chief Secretary, Bihar, Ajay Kumar Singh, Development Commissioner, Jharkhand; and Binod Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, West Bengal, attended the meeting.
The meeting concluded with a collective resolve to strengthen inter-State coordination, expedite the resolution of pending issues and ensure effective implementation of development programmes across the Eastern Zonal region.
Hemant Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Government of Odisha, delivered the welcome address.
A total of 74 agenda items were taken up for discussion.
Important matters included inter-State water issues, flood management, infrastructure development, railway projects, rehabilitation & resettlement, compensation, mining activities in ecologically sensitive areas, human-elephant conflict management, cyber security, digital infrastructure, telecom connectivity, banking access in unbanked rural villages and implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
The Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project and recurring flood-related concerns affecting Odisha and Jharkhand were deliberated in detail. The Water Resources department Secretaries of Odisha and Jharkhand were asked to hold joint discussions with their respective teams and work out an optimal solution before the next meeting of the Zonal Council. Other inter-State river-related matters of eastern zonal states were also discussed.
The meeting also focused telecom connectivity issues in Odisha in the presence of ACS, Electronics & Information Technology Department and the Principal Secretary, Finance Department. Issues relating to operationalisation of banking services in unbanked rural villages, network connectivity, infrastructure projects under the National Highways Authority of India and cyber crime investigation were also discussed.
The afternoon session focused on best practices and innovative initiatives adopted by the participating States.Odisha presented the Ama Sathi WhatsApp chatbot application as a citizen-centric digital governance initiative. The State also highlighted the socio-economic empowerment of women through the Subhadra Scheme, post-evaluation studies of the scheme and the Subhadra-to-Mudra entrepreneurship pathway. Odisha’s tourism land bank initiative was also presented during the session.
Chief Secretary, Odisha Ms. Garg, emphasised the need for timely and coordinated action on all agenda items. She urged the concerned departments and participating States to work together and ensure visible and substantial progress at the earliest. She also called upon all stakeholders to intensify collective efforts to improve performance and strengthen the development trajectory of the Eastern Zonal region.
