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This story is from November 14, 2021

40 of the 51 pending issues resolved in southern zonal council meeting: Amit Shah

40 of the 51 pending issues resolved in southern zonal council meeting: Amit Shah
NEW DELHI: The southern zonal council meeting chaired by home minister Amit Shah in Tirupati on Sunday and attended by the government heads of southern states and Union territories was able to resolve 40 of the 51 pending issues of concern, according to home ministry officials.
At the 29th meeting of the southern zonal council attended by the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry; senior ministers deputed by CMs of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana; and LGs of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, Shah described the nationwide administering of 111 crore doses so far as a big achievement and “an example of cooperative federalism”.
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At the same time, he urged the member states to speed up second dose vaccinations below sub-division level, with CMs and officers personally monitoring the progress.
Shah also requested the southern states to involve officials and experts in firming up their inputs on the proposed amendments to Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act, and submit them soon.
Among the other issues that Shah underlined for follow-up by the member states were creation of an independent director of prosecution to speed up prosecution; priority to tackling spread of narcotics and drugs usage; establishing at least one forensic science college with a syllabus in their local language, so that manpower can be trained to meet needs of forensic investigation.

In his opening address at the meeting, Shah reiterated the Modi government’s commitment to promoting Hindi alongside all regional Indian languages. He in fact urged the delegates to speak in their own state’s language, with arrangements also having been made for translation of proceedings into the languages spoken by member states of the council.
Shah said the zonal council meetings, which involve consultations on issues of federal concern at the highest level, have been able to solve many issues despite being advisory in nature.
The home minister made it a point to praise the ancient culture, traditions and languages of the southern states and underlined that India’ development cannot be imagined without the “very important contribution of states of Southern India”.
Crediting states for fighting Covid-19 in partnership with the Centre, Shah said that when the pandemic began, “it was said that India would not be able to cope with it…However, India quickly ramped up its health infrastructure as well as domestic production of vaccines under leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi…Today, we have overcome fear about the pandemic and Union Govt will continue to do everything possible to cover all States under the vaccination programme”
Shah recalled that the zonal councils have met 18 times in the past seven years, compared to very few meetings held earlier. “Now meetings of different zonal councils are convened regularly and this could happen only with the cooperation of all state governments as well as Central ministries and departments,” said Shah.
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About the Author
Bharti Jain

Bharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. She has been writing on security matters since 1996. Having covered the Union home ministry, security agencies, Election Commission and the ‘prime’ political beat, the Congress, for The Economic Times all these years, she moved to TOI in August 2012. Her repertoire of news stories delves into the whole gamut of issues related to terrorism and internal strife, besides probing strategic affairs in India’s neighbourhood.

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