MHA reconstitutes Standing Committee of Inter-State Council

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reconstituted the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council including its 13 members.

According to the Gazette notification issued on Friday, the MHA took the step in supersession of the Inter-State Council Secretariat's notification dated August 9, 2019, and with the approval of the Prime Minister.

Apart from the Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Inter-State Council, the four additional members - Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat are among the Union Cabinet Ministers on the Council.

Besides these, the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh will be the Members of the new committee.

The Standing Committee will have continuous consultation on the matters for consideration of the Council. It processes all matters pertaining to Centre-State Relations before they are taken up for consideration in the Inter-State Council, the Gazette notification reads.

The committee also monitors the implementation of decisions taken on the recommendations of the Council and considers any other matter referred to it by the Chairman or Council.

The Inter-State Council was established as a permanent body on May 28, 1990, by a Presidential order on the recommendation of the Sarkaria Commission which also recommended that a permanent Inter-State Council called the Inter-Governmental Council (IGC) should be set up under Article 263.

The ISC has been established pursuant to this recommendation of the commission. The objective of the ISC is to discuss or investigate policies, subjects of common interest, and disputes among states.