Amit Shah Chairs 27th Eastern Zonal Council Meet in Ranchi, Jharkhand
Summit and Conference
4 min read
The Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation, Amit Shah, chaired the 27th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council in Ranchi, Jharkhand, on 10th July 2025. The meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council is being held after two years. The 26th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting was held in Patna, Bihar, on 10 December 2023.
The Zonal Council is a platform where the centre and the states/Union Territories (UTs) of a particular region in the country discuss issues of common interest and attempt to resolve disputes among the members of the Zonal Council. At the Ranchi meeting, around 20 issues were discussed.
Participants of the Meeting
The Eastern Zonal Council consists of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, and West Bengal.
Jharkhand - represented by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
Odisha - represented by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Deputy Chief Minister Parvati Parida.
Bihar - represented by the two Deputy Chief Ministers, Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Chaudhary.
West Bengal - represented by Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.
The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of the Zonal Councils and Chairs the meeting of the council.
The meeting was also attended by senior bureaucrats from the centre and state, including the Union Home Secretary, Govind Mohan ,Chief Secretaries of the member states, Secretary of the Inter-State Council Secretariat and other senior officials.
About the Zonal Councils
There are five Zonal Councils in the country set up under the provisions of the State Reorganisation Act 1956.
The country was divided into five zones - Eastern, Western, Northern, Central and Southern Zones.
Later, a separate North-Eastern Council was set up for the North-Eastern states under the North-Eastern Council Act, 1971.
Zonal Councils & North East Council and their members
The following are the members of the five Zonal Councils and the North East Council.
Eastern Zonal Council- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha
Western Zonal Council- Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Northern Zonal Council - comprising Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and the Union Territories of Ladakh, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Southern Zone - Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh
North East Council
- Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura
Functions of the Zonal Council
It is an advisory body, and its recommendations are not binding on the government.
The Zonal Councils provide a platform to discuss matters related to social planning and economy, border disputes, inter-State transport, linguistic minorities, and matters connected with the reorganisation of the States under the States Reorganisation Act.
