Odisha To Raise Coal Royalty At EZC Meeting

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government will raise the issues of coal royalty and poor mobile network in rural areas at the 24^th Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting.

The EZC meeting is scheduled to kick off at the new convention centre at Lok Seva Bhawan here on Friday.

On Thursday, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said that the state government will reiterate its demand for a hike in coal royalty and apprise the meeting of the non-availability of mobile service in 11,000 villages in the state.

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 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, various inter-state concerns along with issues relating to developmental schemes and programmes will be deliberated at the meet.

Delegates from West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha along with senior officials from the Centre will participate in the meet.