CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 75 of 120

Correct — B, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and NCT of Delhi. Every entity named in this option really is a member of the Northern Zonal Council, and it is the only option of which that is true. The Council's full membership today is the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan together with the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Option (b) is therefore incomplete — it leaves out Chandigarh and the two Union Territories created in 2019 — but incompleteness is not error, whereas the other three options each contain an outright wrong member. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which appear in options (a), (c) and (d), belong to the Central Zonal Council, whose headquarters is at Prayagraj.

• (a)Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir — Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are Central Zonal Council members, not Northern. The option also drops Rajasthan, which genuinely is in the Northern Zone.
• (c)Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan — Same defect — Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are Central Zone, and Himachal Pradesh, a real Northern Zone member, is missing.
• (d)Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana — Carries Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh again, and leaves out Rajasthan. Three of the four options are built out of the same Central Zone confusion.

The five Zonal Councils were set up by Part III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, on the suggestion of Jawaharlal Nehru, to give the newly reorganised States a standing forum for cooperation on border disputes, linguistic minorities, inter-State transport, water and law and order. They are statutory, not constitutional. The Union Home Minister chairs all five, and the Chief Minister of a member State serves as Vice-Chairman by annual rotation. The North Eastern Council covering the north-eastern States is a separate body created by its own Act of 1971.

The trap here is geographical intuition. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand feel northern in ordinary speech, and three of the four options rely on that feeling. The statutory zones do not follow the everyday sense of the compass — the Central Zonal Council takes Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, leaving the Northern Zone as the Punjab-Haryana-Himachal-Rajasthan-Delhi block with Chandigarh. The safest way to work the item is to hunt for a wrong name rather than to look for the perfect list, because UPSC's own option here is not exhaustive: as at the February 2023 exam and still today the Northern Zonal Council also includes Chandigarh and, since the reorganisation of 2019, the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh. A candidate who insisted on completeness would have found no answer at all.

• Zonal Councils were created by Part III of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956; they are statutory bodies and find no mention in the Constitution.
• The Union Home Minister is the common Chairman of all five Zonal Councils; a member State's Chief Minister is Vice-Chairman for one year by rotation.
• Northern Zonal Council — Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, with the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh; headquarters New Delhi.
• Central Zonal Council — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh; headquarters Prayagraj.
• The North Eastern Council is not one of the five Zonal Councils; it was constituted under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971.

• Placing Uttar Pradesh or Uttarakhand in the Northern Zone because they sound northern; both are Central Zone.
• Calling Zonal Councils constitutional bodies — they are creatures of a 1956 statute.
• Counting the North Eastern Council as the sixth Zonal Council; it has its own Act.

Either as a membership list to be matched to a zone, or as a statements item on whether Zonal Councils are constitutional, statutory or executive bodies.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Zonal Councils in India were established under which one of the following?

  • (a)A provision of the Constitution of India
  • (b)The States Reorganisation Act, 1956
  • (c)An executive resolution of the Union Cabinet
  • (d)The Inter-State Council Order, 1990

  Answer(b) The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 — Part III of that Act created the five Zonal Councils, which is why they are statutory and not constitutional bodies.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are members of which one of the following Zonal Councils?

  • (a)Northern Zonal Council
  • (b)Central Zonal Council
  • (c)Eastern Zonal Council
  • (d)North Eastern Council

  Answer(b) Central Zonal Council — it groups Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, with headquarters at Prayagraj.