24th Eastern Zonal Council meet begins at Bhubaneswar

The 24th Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting has begun under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Friday.

The meeting started at the state secretariat here.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is the vice-chairman and host of the meeting.

Chief Ministers of Bihar and West Bengal respectively, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, are participating in the meeting while Jharkhand is represented by its Finance Minister.

The EZC will deliberate upon nearly 4 dozen issues including inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalization of coals mines, land and forest clearance of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country's borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects and sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues, among others.

Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will have lunch at Naveen Nivas (residence of Naveen Patnaik) on Friday, said sources.

After the meeting is over, Amit Shah will address a pro-CAA rally at Janata Maidan here on Friday afternoon. Shah's rally assumes significance as this will be the first public meeting after the Delhi violence.

Besides, this is the first visit of Shah after he became Home Minister.

The state BJP claimed that about one lakh people, including party workers, would attend the rally.IANS