New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (February 28) will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Odisha. Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, and Hemant Soren, will also participate in the meeting that will be chaired by Shah and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be the vice-chairman and host of the meet, according to officials.


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"Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Odisha. Date: 28 February 2020, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Lok Sewa Bhawan, Bhubaneswar," the Home Ministry of India tweeted. 


According to the Home Ministery, the upcoming meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country`s borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc. 


The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.


Meanwhile, on his two-day visit to Odisha beginning today, Shah is scheduled to address a rally in Bhubaneshwar and meet state leaders to discuss a strategy to strengthen the BJP in the region. 


According to information, the Home Minister will also address a rally today at Baramunda Field on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that has been causing protests across several parts of the country ever since its passage by Parliament in December last year.


The senior BJP leader is also scheduled to meet state party unit President Samir Mohanty along with Members of Parliament, MLAs, and candidates who were fielded by the party in earlier polls in Odisha to discuss ways to strengthen the party at the grassroots level.


On February 29, Shah is scheduled to offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple and Lingaraja Temple and will return to the national capital on the same day.