Tirupati: Three CMs skip Southern Zonal Council meet

Tirupati: Three Chief Ministers from Telangana State, Tamil Nadu and Kerala skipped the 29th Southern Zonal Council meeting on Sunday.

A total of five States and three Union Territories are the members of the council out of which, AP, Karnataka and Puducherry CMs YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Basvaraj Bommai and N Rangaswamy and Lt Governors of Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands Praphul Patel and Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi have attended the meeting.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan were absent due to various reasons. However, the Telangana Chief Minister had deputed Home Minister Mahmood Ali and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on his behalf to attend the SZC meeting whereas Tamil Nadu has deputed its Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi and on behalf of Kerala, its Revenue Minister K Rajan has represented the State at the SZC meet.

Tamilisai Soundararajan in her capacity as In-charge Lt Governor of Puducherry also attended the meeting.

The SZC meeting has discussed a range of key issues such as cooperation between States, conflicts, border issues, internal security, infrastructure development, industries, tourism development, and economic development. The meeting also reviewed the implementation of the decisions taken at the previous meeting.