Five chief ministers of southern states skipped today’s southern zonal council meeting held at Vijayawada to discuss the issues related to peninsular India and promoting cooperative federalism among the states. Chandrababu Naidu was the only chief minister attended the meeting while CMs of Telangana, Tamilanadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry gave a miss by sending their representative ministers.
Union home minister Rajanath Singh presided over the meeting. Inaugurating the 26th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council consisting of the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Pudduchery (UT), the union home minister said the country was facing serious challenges from Left wing Extremism which needs to be countered effectively and collectively. Among other challenges, Coastal security in the Southern States needs to be strengthened, he added. Rajnath Singh said the present Government from the very beginning had attached utmost importance to strengthening of the institutions of Zonal Councils and the Inter-State Council. Earlier, the Union Home Minister expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims whose lives had been lost in the most devastating floods witnessed in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry recently. He assured that the Union Government will continue to do everything possible to ameliorate the sufferings of the people affected by the floods and in providing relief and rehabilitation operations. He said that the Government have also reconstituted the Inter-State Council recently, which was pending for long time and its meeting will also be convened soon.
In today’s meeting the Southern Zonal Council took up the issues like coastal security, peninsular region industrial corridor, introduction of peninsular tourism trains in the region, coordinated and uniform approach in granting industrial incentives, finalization of inter-state reciprocal transport agreement, curbing use of unacceptable levels of pesticides and ripening agents in fruits and vegetables, maintaining uniform standards in the courses for nursing and allied health services, power transmission lines etc. Among those present in the meeting were Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, Andhra Pradesh; Home Minister, Karnataka ;Minister for Water Resources, Kerala; Minister for Home & Labour and Minister for Finance & Civil Supplies, Telangana; Minister for Finance & PWD, Tamil Nadu and Lt. Governer, Puducherry. The meeting of the Council ended with the decision to host the next meeting at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
