Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the 26th Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Patna on Sunday.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is also the vice-chairman of the council and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav are present at the meeting. The chief ministers of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal were also supposed to attend the meeting, but could not make it and instead, a team of ministers and officials from these three states have arrived here to represent their respective states.
On behalf of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is currently in north Bengal, Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya is attending the meeting. Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Uraon has come in place of chief minister Hemant Soren and Odisha state Ministers Tushar Kranti Behra and Pradeep Kumar are representing chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
This is for the first time that all three chief ministers have skipped the Eastern Zonal Council meeting together. It is being speculated that the three CMs did not attend the meeting because all these states are run by opposition parties.
The meeting began as per schedule at Samvad Bhavan of the Chief Minister Secretariat. Various issues ranging from pension liabilities between Bihar and Jharkhand, infrastructure creation and inter-state sharing of river waters are likely to be taken up at the meeting. Again, Bihar's demand for a 'special state' status may also be taken up for discussions. The state has also demanded building a major dam as part of river-linking initiative.
After Shah landed at Patna airport, he was welcomed by state Finance Minister Vijay Chaudhary. Also, BJP state president Samrat Chaudhary and Leader of Opposition Vijay Sinha were present at the airport. Shah left for the Samvad Bhavan directly from the airport.
Security arrangements in Patna have been stepped up in view of the meeting. The stretch from the airport till the CM secretariat was wrapped in tight security. Shah would be staying at the state guest house.
The previous zonal meeting was held in Kolkata last year. At that time, Nitish Kumar had skipped the meeting and the state was represented by Tejashwi Yadav and Vijay Chaudhary. It was then decided to set up a joint committee to resolve the long-pending issue of constructing canal in West Bengal for providing irrigation facilities in Bihar's Kishanganj district.
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