Reconstitution of Inter-State Council; PM Modi is the chairman

The Inter-State Council was reconstituted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman and 6 Union ministers and chief ministers as members.

Key Points:

• Members: 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), 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 are the members.
• Permanent invitees to the council (10): 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), S Jaishankar (Minister of External Affairs), Ramesh Pokhriyal (Minister of HRD), Arjun Munda (Minister of Tribal Affairs), Piyush Goyal (Minister of Railways), Dharmendra Pradhan (Minister of Petroleum) and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Minister of Jal Shakti).
• Powers: 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.

Standing committee of the Inter-State Council
The government reconstituted the standing committee of the Inter-State Council with the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah. 4 Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Thaawar Chand Gehlot & Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and 8 chief ministers are the members.

• Powers: It 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, monitor the implementation of decisions taken on the recommendations of the council and consider any other matter referred to it by the council. If necessary, it may invite experts and persons eminent in specific fields to have the benefit of their views while deliberating upon the related subjects.