Union Home Minister chairs meeting of Central Regional Council in Narendra Nagar
By Our Staff Reporter
Narendra Nagar, 7 Oct: Union Home Minister and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah today chaired the 24th meeting of the Central Regional Council here today. The meeting was also attended by chief ministers of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Home Minister of Chhattisgarh. Chief Ministers Pushkar Singh Dhami, Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh attended the meeting on behalf of their states while Chhattisgarh was represented by Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu. In addition, Chief Secretaries, Home Secretaries and other senior officials from the member states were also present in the meeting.
Several important issues pertaining to the states were discussed in the meeting and many important decisions were taken. In the meeting, on the call of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Central Regional Council unanimously passed a resolution congratulating all the players with applause for bringing glory to the country by winning more than 100 medals for the first time in the Asian Games. In the meeting, the Central Regional Council also welcomed the spectacular success of Chandrayaan-3, the successful conduct of the G20 summit and the historic passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill by the Parliament.
In his presidential address, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the role of regional councils has changed from advisory to action platforms. He said that the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh included in the Central Regional Council have a huge contribution in the GDP and development of the country. Shah said that the states included in the Central Regional Council are the main centres of agriculture, animal husbandry, grain production, mining, water supply and tourism in the country, and even the issue of water supply cannot be imagined without these states.
Shah reminded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always emphasised on strengthening the spirit of cooperative federalism, under this the regional councils have played the role of catalyst in solving problems, increasing financial inclusion and policy changes. He said that the states of the Central Regional Council have implemented Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s concept of Team India sincerely.
The Union Home Minister said that as part of the important step taken towards realising the resolve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enrich the livelihood of the farmers of the country, now 100 percent pulses, oilseeds and maize produced by them will be procured from the farmers across the country at Minimum Support Price (MSP). The procurement will be done through NAFED. In the 23rd meeting of the Central Regional Council held in Bhopal on August 22, 2022, the inclusion of lac production in the Kisan Credit Card and Crop Insurance Scheme was discussed. After this, the scale of finance for lac production has been determined in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. In the meeting held today, it was decided that a study will be conducted by ICAR to include lac production in the Revised Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme. Under this, Kisan Credit Cards are being issued and this decision will benefit the farmers involved in lac production. In the last meeting held in Bhopal, a decision was taken to fix benchmark price for Kodo and Kutki Sri grain (Minor Millets) produce. The Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India issued an order in this regard on August 9, 2023. In today’s meeting, it was also decided to fix the price of Kodo and Kutki produce at par with the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Ragi. This decision will benefit crores of farmers across the country, especially in the member states of the Central Regional Council. Also, in the meeting, issues like banking facility to every village within 5 km radius, formation of 2 lakh new PACS in the country, royalty and mining related issues and creation of infrastructure in Left Wing Extremism-affected districts were also discussed.
Describing issues like cooperation, drop out rate of school children and malnutrition as priority, Amit Shah asked all the member states to pay special attention to them. Emphasizing the need to eliminate malnutrition among children, he said that it is the responsibility of all of us to address this problem with full sensitivity. He reminded that from 2004 to 2014, 11 meetings of Regional Councils and 14 meetings of Standing Committees were held, while from 2014 to 2023, 25 meetings of Regional Councils and 29 meetings of Standing Committees were held. Shah said that between 2004 and 2014, a total of 570 issues were discussed, out of which 448 were resolved, while between 2014 to 2023, a total of 1315 issues were discussed, out of which 1157 issues were resolved.
The next meeting of the Council is likely to be held in Varanasi as proposed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
