ZONAL COUNCILS

Section 15 of the Reorganisation Act, 1956 provided that there shall be a Zonal Council of each of the five zones of the Country. Our Country has been divided into five zones namely Northern Zone, Central Zone, Eastern Zone, Western zone & Southern Zone. Each zone has a Zonal Council. All Zonal Councils are headed by Union Home Minister.

1) Northern Zone Council: consists of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh.

2) Eastern Zone Council: consists of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal.

3) Central Zone Council: consists of Chhattisgarh, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh.

4) West Zone Council: consists of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu

5) Southern Zone Council: consists of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The North-East States Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Nagaland are not included in Zonal Councils and there special problems are looked after by North-East Council set up under North-East Council Act, 1972.

Functions of Zonal Councils

Each Zonal Council shall be an advisory body and may discuss any matter in which some or all of the States represented in that Council have a common interest and advise the Central Government and the government of each states concerned as to the action be taken an any such matter.

A Zonal Council may discuss and make recommendations with regard to any matter of Common interest in field of economic and social planning, any matter concerning Border Dispute, Inter-State Transport, Crimes, Smuggling, etc.

Composition of Zonal Council