Amit Shah to chair 31st Southern Zonal Council meeting in Tamil Nadu

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council in Kovalam, Tamil Nadu, on August 20, bringing together the chief administrators of India's southern states to address pressing interstate disputes and national policy issues. The meeting, last convened in 2022, is scheduled to take place at a hotel on East Coast Road in Kovalam, near Chennai, with a focus on fostering cooperative federalism.

Shah is expected to arrive in Chennai on the evening of August 19 and proceed to the conference venue. He will be joined by the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, and the administrator of the Union Territory of Puducherry, along with two senior ministers from each region. Chief secretaries and other high-ranking state and central officials are also set to participate.

The council, established under the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, serves as a key platform for resolving disputes between the Centre and member states and among the states themselves. A primary agenda item will be longstanding river water-sharing disputes, particularly the ongoing tensions between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka regarding the Cauvery...