Jharkhand vow to fight Maoists, drugs

Ranchi: The four member states of the eastern zonal council (EZC) - Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal - have agreed to co-operate in controlling Left-wing extremism and production and sale of psychotropic substances in Maoist areas.
Talking to the media after the 22nd EZC meeting on Monday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the member states discussed over 150 issues, 50% of which were resolved."Some of the contentious issues between Bihar and Jharkhand related to handing over of Cadastral maps and between Jharkhand and West Bengal on the signing of the joint survey report of 49 maujas of Sahibganj district of Jharkhand by officials of Bengal were resolved," he said, adding that cooperation for Left-wing extremism and drug control was also discussed. "This is an ongoing process and we expect progress at the level of states in the future," he said.
Secretary of the interstate council secretariat (ISCS) Naina Jayseelan said the states demanded that regular meetings of the unified command be organized. "The Centre agreed to it, besides accepting Jharkhand's demand for aerial survey by the narcotics control department," she said.
While Bihar and Jharkhand were represented by their respective chief ministers, Odisha was represented by finance minister Pradip Kumar Amat and West Bengal by minister of planning Asis Banerjee.
Jayseelan said the issue of dedicated freight corridor was struck because of bottlenecks in land acquisition. The corridor involves forest land in Bihar's Gaya district and clearance from Dhanbad and Giridih forest divisions. "We have been informed about the progress in both the states and the bottlenecks have been cleared as the dedicated freight corridor corporation of India limited (DFCCIL) has to take its call," she said.
Among the bilateral issues there were nine points of common interest for Bihar and Jharkhand out of which eight remained pending.
Next meeting of the EZC has been planned in Odisha, date for which is yet to be decided.