Eastern Zonal Council meeting postponed

Kolkata, Oct 29 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah's scheduled visit to Kolkata on November 5 to attend and chair the Eastern Zonal Council meeting at West Bengal state secretariat 'Nabanna' has been cancelled "due to his prior commitments elsewhere", the state government was informed on Saturday.

The information on the postponing the meeting was conveyed to the Secretariat on Saturday evening, officials said, adding the state government was yet to receive any communication on another date for the meeting.

Besides Amit Shah, the meeting was also to be attended by the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Sikkim.

The issue of resurgence of Maoist activities in certain pockets of eastern Indian states especially West Bengal and Jharkhand was also likely to be taken up during the deliberations.

According to sources, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was also likely to submit her reservations related to the extension of Border Security Force's area jurisdiction to 50 km along India-Bangladesh border, and the recent announcement of the Union Home Minister to set up offices of National Investigation Agency in all state capitals.

The possibility of any meeting between Shah and Banerjee also looks unlikely now.

Besides, the West Bengal unit of the BJP also had plans to arrange an interaction between Amit Shah and those protesting for over 500 days against the multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam.