NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s preoccupation with urgent meetings has forced him to cancel a crucial Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting that was scheduled to be held in Kolkata on November 5.
Confirming this, home ministry sources said that the sudden cancellation of the meeting was notified to the governments of the eastern states – West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Sikkim – on October 29, a day after the two-day Chintan Shivir conference of state home ministers concluded at Surajkund in Faridabad, Haryana. The EZC meeting has been deferred indefinitely.
The West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha chief ministers, who also hold the home department portfolio in their respective states, did not attend the Chintan Shivir. West Bengal Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi had chaired a meeting of officials on October 28 to discuss security at Nabanna,
the state secretariat, which was to be the venue.