PANAJI: Mutual concerns of coastal security, narcotics control and regulatory affairs related to crime prevention and control will dominate the sixth meeting of the Western Zonal Council to be held here on September 11.

The meeting will deliberate on common issues such as strengthening the intelligence and narcotics wings, modernisation of police and jails and will also address various issues of common economic concern to the States on the western coast vis-a-vis the Union Government.

To be chaired by Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, the meeting will be attended by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra and representatives of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haveli.

A meeting of the Standing Committee of the council, which was held here last week under the chairmanship of Goa Chief Secretary J.P. Singh, chalked out issues of prime concern to be debated at the meeting.

Mr. Singh told presspersons that the meeting was attended by Chief Secretary of Maharashtra D.K. Shankar, Additional Chief Secretary of Gujarat George Joseph and representatives from the Union Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, and Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau (Mumbai) K.C. Verma, among others.

The meeting laid emphasis on strengthening internal security and enhancing the level of cooperation on this front. "There is a feeling that we have to strengthen micro-level security by strengthening the intelligence function right down to the police level," said Mr. Singh and added that "the other States have been asked to have a look at the Maharashtra model of a minimum fixed tenure for police in this regard."

The meeting decided to focus on issues pertaining to coastal security and internal security. It had been decided to step up the sharing of crime records among the States in a bid to enhance the crime prevention and crime detection, he said.

A concern was also raised about the Union Government's policy of slashing funds under police and jail modernisation by 30 per cent across the board.

On the issue of narcotics, it was agreed that it was assuming serious concern with foreigners being caught with big hauls in the recent times.

"We have been asked to carefully monitor the activities of groups coming especially from Nigeria, Russia and Israel, who are found indulging in illegal activities by overstaying," said Mr. Singh.

Goa had deported 26 overstaying foreign nationals.

In the area of disaster management, the States would be asked to share data of rainfall in catchment areas on a regular basis. On the development front, the meeting would focus on issues such as strengthening infrastructure for eco-tourism, hinterland tourism and medical tourism.

The States would take up the grievance about rationalisation of taxes and also the discriminatory concessions given to some, which adversely affected the investment flow in others, he said.

Another issue of common interest was recognition of technical institutes. The States had sought delegation of power from the Union Ministry of Human Resources to avert the delay they had been facing from AICTE on this front, he added.

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