Gandhinagar: Home Minister Amit Shah chairs meeting of Western Zonal Council

Gandhinagar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired the 26th Meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

On this occasion, Amit Shah inaugurated an e-Resource web portal https://iscs-eresource.gov.in of Inter State Council Secretariat, MHA. This portal will facilitate functioning of Zonal Councils.

The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and other distinguished Ministers, Chief Secretaries from the States in the Western Zone, Union Home Secretary, Secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat and other senior officers from the States and Central Ministries and Departments.
In his remarks, the Union Home Minister said that after the recent success of the country's Chandrayaan-3 mission, the whole world is praising the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

He said that in the last 9 years, with his foresight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only given a new direction to India’s space sector, but has made a time-bound program and framework to take India to the forefront of the world in the field of space by year 2030.
The 26th Western Zonal Council meeting held at Gandhinagar discussed a total of 17 issues, out of which 09 issues were resolved and remaining issues, including issues of national interest, were kept for monitoring after in-depth discussion. 

Some crucial issues concerning the member States in particular and the country as a whole were ‘Transfer of land related issues, Issues related to water supply, operationalization of Auctioned Mines, cash deposit facility at Common Service Centre, Coverage of villages by Bank Branches/Postal Banking facilities, Speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children, Implementation of the Scheme of Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) for expeditious disposal of rape and POCSO Act cases,Utilisation of Bharat Net infrastructure by States for providing broadband connectivityto  households in villages, Adoption of Telecom RoW Rules by States for facilitating roll out of 5G, Implementation of Motor Vehicles (Registration and Functions of Vehicle Scrapping Facility Amendment) Rules, 2022, Strengthening of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), a Ministry of Home Affairs release said.

Union Home Minister asked Zonal Council member states to work sensitively on three issues of national importance – POSHAN Abhiyaan, reducing the dropout rate of school children and taking benefits of Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana to every poor. Shri Shah said that co-operatives are the only way to connect 60 crore people of the country with the economy so that they can contribute in the progress of the country.
He said that by creating 2 lakh new Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and making existing PACS viable, the country’s cooperative sector will witness a huge change.

He said that the Zonal Council is an important platform for cooperative federalism for resolving the issues between the Centre and the States and between the States with Whole of Government Approach, which believes in consensual solution in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. 
Western Zone is an important zone of the country and with a contribution of 25 per cent to the country's GDP, this region is the hub of finance, IT, diamond, petroleum, automobile and defence.