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Kerala: Amit Shah resolves 9 out of 26 issues in 30th Southern Zonal Council meeting

Kerala: Amit Shah resolves 9 out of 26 issues in 30th Southern Zonal Council meeting

Home minister Amit Shah, chaired the 30th Southern Zonal Council meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. In the 30th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council held in Thiruvananthapuram, 26 issues were discussed, 9 issues were resolved, 17 issues were reserved for further deliberation, out of which 9 issues were related to the reorganization of Andhra Pradesh. 

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai, Tamil Nadu M.K.Stalin, Puducherry LG Dr.Tamilisai Soundararajan, Andaman and Nicobar Island LG Admiral D K Joshi, Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Patel and other dignitaries attended the meeting.

The Union Home Minister said, “the nature of the Zonal Councils has changed in the last eight years and the number of its meetings has increased significantly. Before 2014, the zonal councils used to have an average of two meetings in a year, which this government has increased to 2.7. On an average, the Standing Committees used to have 1.4 sittings, this government has also almost doubled this to 2.75.”

He said out of the 9 coastal States, 4 States and 4 out of 3 Union Territories are members of the Southern Zonal Council, which means that out of the total 7,500 kms long coastline, about 4,800 kms coastline comes under these States.

Shah said out of 12 major ports of India, 7 major ports are in this region. With this, now out of the total 3,461 fishing villages in India, 1,763 fishing villages are in this zone and there is immense potential for increasing trade and export of marine products.

Projects more than worth Rs. 2,00,000 crore are being implemented under Sagarmala for coastal States. He said 61 projects are under implementation at a tune of Rs. 7,737 crore for the overall development of coastal districts. 

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana is being run for the Blue Revolution. Since 2015, Rs. 4,206 crore has been sanctioned for the Fisheries Infrastructure Development Fund Scheme in the Southern States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh 56 projects have been approved for the development of basic infrastructure of ports and fisheries in the States at a cost of Rs. 2,711 crore.

The Home Minister said that, “a policy for establishing forensic science labs has been prepared and sent to the States. This will increase the  Conviction Rate. He said that the target of the Modi government is to have a bank branch in every five kilometres, for this, the member States of the Southern Zonal Council should make efforts to provide banking facilities within five kilometers of every village in their area and persuade cooperative banks to open branches. This will help in delivering the benefits of government schemes directly to beneficiaries through DBT.”

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