Articles from General Knowledge Today

Zonal Councils
2012- 09- 23 13:09:11 GKToday

T he idea of creat ion of Zonal Councils was f irst of all moot ed by t he f irst
Prime Minist er of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1956. T he zonal councils
have been est ablished by t he st at e reorganizat ion act 1956 t o advise on
mat t ers of common int erest t o each of t he f ive zones, int o which t he t errit ory
of India has been divided.
Zonal Councils are not Const it ut ional bodies akin t o t he Int erst at e
Council. However, since t hey have been est ablished via t he part III
of the States Reorganiz ation Act of 1956, t hey are st at ut ory
bodies.
In India, at present , t here are 6 Zonal Council. Originally f ive councils were
creat ed as per t he St at es Reorganizat ion Act 1956 as f ollows:
Northern Z onal Council: Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &
Kashmir, Punjab, Rajast han, Nat ional Capit al T errit ory of Delhi and Union
T errit ory of Chandigarh
Central Z onal Council: Chhat t isgarh, Ut t arakhand, Ut t ar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh
Eastern Z onal Council: Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and West
Bengal;
Western Z onal Council: Goa, Gujarat , Maharasht ra and t he Union
T errit ories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Southern Z onal Council: Andhra Pradesh, Karnat aka, Kerala, T amil
Nadu and t he Union T errit ory of Puducherry.
North Eastern Council
T he Nort h east ern council was set up in 1971 t o deal wit h t he problems of
seven nort h east st at es of India. It was set up under t he legislat ion called
Nort h East ern Council Act , 1972. T he St at e of Sikkim has also been included in
t he Nort h East ern Council vide Nort h East ern Council (Amendment ) Act , 2002
not if ied on 23rd December, 2002.Consequent ly, act ion f or exclusion of Sikkim
as member of East ern Zonal Council has been init iat ed by Minist ry of Home
Af f airs. T he chairman of t he Zonal council is Union Home Minist er and Chief
Minist ers of t he St at es included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of t he
Zonal Council f or t hat zone by rot at ion, each holding of f ice f or a period of one
year at a t ime.