Senior officers discuss agenda
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 26: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair North Zone Council (NZC) meeting in the month of November in Chandigarh which will be attended by the representatives from Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in which various issues pertaining to States/Union Territories will come up for discussion.
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This will be the first NZC meeting after formation of new Government in Jammu and Kashmir and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is expected to attend it. The meeting is being hosted by the Haryana Government, official sources told the Excelsior.
Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh Brig (Retd) BD Mishra will also attend the meeting.
Last year, the meeting was held in Amritsar and hosted by the Punjab Government.
Officials said all issues pertaining to the member States/UTs including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, New Delhi and Rajasthan will come up in the meeting whose date is yet to be finalized but it will be held in last week of November.
To set agenda of the meeting, senior officers of the member States/UTs met in Chandigarh today and took up the issues which could be discussed and resolved.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will preside over the day-long meeting, the sources said.
Dr Pawan Kotwal, Advisor UT of Ladakh, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Secretary Planning Jammu and Kashmir, K Moses Chalai, Secretary Inter-State Council Secretariat (ISCS), Prabodh Saxena, Chief Secretary Himachal Pradesh, Sudhansh Pant, Chief Secretary Rajasthan, KAP Sinha, Chief Secretary Punjab and Navin Choudhary, Principal Secretary NCT of New Delhi attended the meeting which was chaired by Haryana Chief Secretary TVSN Prasad.
Sources said law and order, drug trafficking, water, power and boundary related issues and various other matters will be taken up during the NZC meeting.
“The border related issues of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab are expected to figure at the meeting as they share long boundary with Pakistan from where there were reports earlier that infiltration of terrorists and smuggling of drugs may be taking place. Some consignments of arms and ammunition as well as drugs have also been seized on the borders,” the sources said, adding the Union Home Ministry headed by Amit Shah has taken series of steps to check the menace of drugs.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is expected to hold more security review meetings in Jammu and Kashmir next week with senior officers of security agencies.
This week, he held two security review meetings including the one of Unified Headquarters which was attend by top Army Commanders, paramilitary, Jammu and Kashmir Police and Intelligence agencies officers.
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