CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -In the meeting of the Southern Zonal Council held in Tirupati today under the chairmanship of the Union Home Minister, 40 out of 51 pending cases were agreed upon.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Detailed explanation-3: -Five Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-III of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956 – north, south, east, west and central. The North Eastern States i.e. (i) Assam (ii) Arunachal Pradesh (iii) Manipur (iv) Tripura (v) Mizoram (vi) Meghalaya and (vii) Nagaland are not included in the Zonal Councils.

Detailed explanation-4: -At present India has six zonal councils. They are Northern Zonal Council, Central Zonal Council, Eastern Zonal Council, Western Zonal Council, Southern Zonal Council, and Northeastern council. The home minister of the Central government is the common chairman of the five zonal councils.

Detailed explanation-5: -(2) The Union Minister nominated under clause (a) of sub-section (1) to a Zonal Council shall be its Chairman. (3) The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone shall act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.