A joint forum of seven northern states will on Friday discuss at the 28th Northern Zonal Council meeting in Chandigarh issues related to health, social welfare and security.
The meeting will be chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Chief Ministers of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi and the administrator of the Union territory of Chandigarh are expected to attend it.
Issues of common interest like infrastructure, health, security, social welfare, linguistic minorities and border disputes are likely to be taken up in the meeting.
The 27th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council was held in New Delhi on April 25, 2015.
A meeting of the Standing Committee of the Northern Zonal Council was held on May 26, 2016 in Srinagar to scrutinise the agenda for the upcoming meeting.
As many as 35 agendas were taken up in the Srinagar meeting, out of which 28 issues were resolved at the level of the Standing Committee.
Five zonal councils -- central, western, northern, southern and eastern -- have been established under the State Reorganisation Act, 1956. Each zone has its council comprising the Chief Minister, two ministers and the Chief Secretary of each state.
The zonal councils provide a forum where problems between the Centre and states and amongst the states themselves can be resolved through free and frank discussion and consultations.
These being advisory bodies, there is full scope for free exchange of views at their meetings.
--IANS
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