Shah to chair western zonal council meet in Goa

The Western Zonal Council's meet will be held in Panaji on Thursday under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said.

Home ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, and senior officials from the Union Territory of Daman and Diu would participate in the meeting, he said.

They would discuss issues pertaining to the Home Ministry at the Centre and the respective departments in states of the western region, Sawant told reporters here on Tuesday.

The previous meeting of the western zonal council was chaired by the then home minister Rajnath Singh at Gandhinagar in April last year.

Singh had then said the zonal councils were set up under the States Reorganisation Act-1956 with an objective to develop the habit of cooperative working among the states and between the Centre and the states.

The zonal councils are mandated to discuss and make recommendations on any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning.

Sawant, who also holds a charge of the Home department in Goa, said a detailed schedule of Shah was awaited.

He said a discussion was likely on the demand for resumption of mining operations in the coastal state.

Shah had in the past discussed the issue with Sawant.

The mining operations, a key source of revenue to the government, came to a standstill in March last year following a Supreme Court order which quashed 88 mining leases.