Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) Meet In Bhubaneswar On Feb 28

Bhubaneswar: The 24^th Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meet will kick off at the new convention centre of Lok Seva Bhawan on February 28.

Delegates from West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha along with senior officials from the Centre will participate. Various inter-state concerns along with issues relating to developmental schemes and programmes will be deliberated in the meet.

Issues relating 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 14^th Finance Commission, devolution of powers to panchayat bodies, coal royalty, implementation of direct benefit transfer, telecom and internet connectivity, use of aadhaar data base and timely release of central grants will be deliberated at the meet.

Ahead of the meet, a high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathyon Thursday.

He directed the concerned departments to feed update status of various issues, which are likely to come up in the meet, to the Home Department and ensure that all the arrangements are done in a befitting manner for its smooth carryover.