The Odisha government has taken the preparations to full swing for the upcoming 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meet to be held on February 28. The meet will be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
According to officials, delegates from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha along with officials from the Government of India would be participating in the meet. The meeting would act as a common ground to discuss various inter-state issues relating to developmental schemes and programs.
Chief secretary Asit Tripathy is heading the ongoing preparations. He had also recently scheduled a high-level meeting to track the progress. He has instructed various departments to give a heads up to the home department about possible issues that might be raised during the event.
The issues related to adoption of ‘postage stamp method’ for unified power tariff in different states, disaster resilience infrastructure, rail link projects, operation of mines, financial inclusion, grants to Gram Panchayats under 14th Finance Commission, devolution of powers to panchayat bodies, coal royalty, implementation of direct benefit transfer, telecom and internet connectivity, use of Aadhar database, timely release of central grants among others is likely to make it to the discussions.