Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday presided over the 32nd meeting of the Northern Zonal Council at a heavily secured venue in Faridabad, Haryana, hosting an unprecedented gathering of eight top leaders — Chief Ministers of Haryana (Nayab Singh Saini), Himachal Pradesh (Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu), Punjab (Bhagwant Mann), Rajasthan (Bhajan Lal Sharma), Jammu & Kashmir (Omar Abdullah), Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Chandigarh Administrator and Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, along with Lieutenant Governors Manoj Sinha (J&K, Ladakh not present) and VK Saxena (Delhi) — marking the first full-strength northern huddle after multiple state elections and political realignments.

The meeting opened with a solemn one-minute silence to honour the 13 innocent lives lost in the November 10 terrorist car-bomb blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, a gesture that underscored the heightened security concerns across the region even as leaders sat down to resolve long-standing developmental and administrative disputes.

Key agenda items included expediting investigations and trials in crimes against women and children through expanded Fast Track Special Courts, resolving inter-state water disputes (especially the perennial SYL canal row between Punjab and Haryana), improving power transmission and distribution coordination, strengthening primary health and education infrastructure, and evolving a common strategy for urban planning and land use in the rapidly expanding National Capital Region.

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With fresh faces like Omar Abdullah (first zonal council after returning as J&K CM after a decade), Rekha Gupta (Delhi’s new CM) and Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rajasthan’s young BJP CM) sharing the table with seasoned players like Bhagwant Mann, the session witnessed intense but constructive exchanges, with Shah reportedly pushing every state to fast-track pending Central schemes and resolve mutual irritants before the next Budget session.

Sources revealed that over the past 11 years, such zonal council meetings under Amit Shah’s direct oversight have resolved more than 1,500 inter-state issues nationwide, and Monday’s Faridabad conclave is expected to clear at least 40 pending matters concerning boundary disputes, river-water sharing, power tariffs and security coordination, reinforcing the Centre’s aggressive “cooperative federalism” drive across the strategically vital northern belt.

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