The 22nd meeting of the standing committee of Northern Zone Council (NZC) was held here today to resolve the interstate issues involving member states and Union Territories. Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh K.K. Pant while chairing the meeting, extended warm welcome to the representatives of the partner states of the NZC including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
The Chief Secretary said that the NZC states share several common concerns and opportunities and by working in close coordination and taking benefit of each other’s experiences and river water sharing, cyber crime, urban housing we would be able to achieve our objectives.
Wide range of issues concerning the partner states like water sharing, food safety, river sharing, crime against women and children, narcotics and disaster management were touched during the deliberations. He said all these states would move forward in finding the solutions for these issues with practical and constructive approach.
K.K. Pant said that the meeting of the standing committee of Northern Zonal Council was an appropriate platform to take up and deliberate on important issues that could be resolved at the level of standing committee. He said that several long-standing disputes and pending issues of the partner states of the NZC were taken up during the meeting.
The Chief Secretary said that the state government raised its major issues in the meeting including appointment of a whole time Member in Bhakra Beas Management Board from Himachal Pradesh as Himachal is the major stakeholder in its project.
Besides the issue of allotment of land for the construction of Himachal Sadan in sector-52 of Chandigarh and share of Himachal Pradesh in Chandigarh being successor state of composite Punjab in light of Honorable Supreme Court's Judgment was also taken up.
It was informed in the meeting a full-fledged Zonal Unit of Narcotics Control Bureau at Shimla has been made operational. This unit is of strategic importance which will help in enhanced coordination with state and central agencies, better operation efficacy in sustained field operations and inter-state coordination besides inter-state and cross-border focus over trafficking corridors.
In all 66 agenda items of various inter-state concerns were discussed during the meeting. The meeting was followed by presentations of best practices in the NZC states including three presentations from Himachal Pradesh.
The meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary of Punjab K.A.P Sinha, Chief Secretary of Haryana Anurag Rastogi, Additional Chief Secretary of Delhi Navin Kumar Chaudhary, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir R.Alice Vaz, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Ladakh Dr. Laltinkuma Franklin. Secretary, ISCS, Union Ministry of Home Affairs Ashish Srivastava and Advisor and Additional Secretary Manish Bhardwaj and Chief Conservator of Forests of UT of Chandigarh Saurabh Kumar.The Chief Secretary of the Rajasthan government V. Srinivas attended the meeting virtually along-with his senior officers.