The Inter-State Council, which is mandated to investigate and advise on disputes between states, has been reconstituted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman and six Union ministers and all chief ministers as members.
According to a notification, the Union ministers who will be members of the reconstituted council are Amit Shah (Home), Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance), Rajnath Singh (Defence), Narendra Singh Tomar (Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj).
Other members are Thaawar Chand Gehlot (Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment) and Hardeep Singh Puri (Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs).
Chief Ministers of all states and Union territories having legislative assemblies and administrators of the Union territories not having a legislative assembly will also be members of the council.
Ten other Union ministers have been made permanent invitees to the council.
They are Nitin Gadkari (Minister of Road Transport and Highways), Ram Vilas Paswan (Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Minister of Law and Justice, Harmsimrat Kaur Badal (Minister of Food Processing Industries), Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (Minister of External Affairs), Ramesh Pokhriyal (Minister of HRD).
Other, four permanent invitees to the council are Arjun Munda (Minister of Tribal Affairs), Piyush Goyal (Minister of Railways), Dharmendra Pradhan (Minister of Petroleum) and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Minister of Jal Shakti).
The Article 263 of the Constitution provides for the establishment of an Inter-State Council which is mandated to inquire into and advise upon disputes which may arise between states, investigate and discuss subjects in which some or all of the states, or the Union and one or more of the states, have a common interest.
It is also tasked with giving recommendations on any such dispute and recommendations for the better coordination of policy and action.
In another notification, the government reconstituted the standing committee of the Inter-State Council with the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah.
Four Union ministers and eight chief ministers are members of the new standing committee of the council.
The Union ministers are Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The standing committee will have consultation and recommend matters for consideration of the council, process all matters pertaining to Centre-state relations before they are taken up for consideration in the council.
It will also monitor the implementation of decisions taken on the recommendations of the council and consider any other matter referred to it by the council.
The standing committee may, if necessary, invite experts and persons eminent in specific fields to have the benefit of their views while deliberating upon the related subjects.
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