NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 144 of 146

Correct — C, the Union Home Minister. In June 2018, three months before this paper, the Union Cabinet approved a repositioning of the North Eastern Council under which the Union Home Minister became its ex officio Chairman and the Minister of State with Independent Charge for the Development of North Eastern Region became Vice Chairman. The logic of the change was administrative symmetry. The Union Home Minister already chairs each of the five Zonal Councils set up under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the north-eastern states are covered by none of them; putting him in the chair of the North Eastern Council let that body take on the inter-state work — boundary disputes, arms and drug trafficking and the like — that a Zonal Council handles elsewhere.

• (a)The President of India — The President's role under the Council's statute is to nominate members, not to preside. The President chairs no such executive body; that is not how the office works.
• (b)The Prime Minister of India — The Prime Minister chairs the Inter-State Council, constituted in 1990 under Article 263, and also NITI Aayog. Those are the bodies this option is borrowed from — but the North Eastern Council is chaired by the Home Minister.
• (d)The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region — The near miss, and a real office. Under the same June 2018 decision this Minister became the Council's Vice Chairman, not its Chairman. A candidate who remembers only that the DoNER Ministry is involved will land here.

The North Eastern Council is a statutory body created by the North Eastern Council Act, 1971, and it came into being on 7 November 1972. It functions as a regional planning and advisory body for the north-eastern states, and Sikkim was added to its membership in 2002. Under the amendment of that year the Council comprises the Governor and the Chief Minister of each constituent state together with three members nominated by the President — so the statute's list of members does not itself name any Union Minister. The chairmanship arrangement of June 2018 sits on top of that framework rather than replacing it, which is why it came by Cabinet decision rather than by fresh legislation.

Presiding-officer questions are best learnt as a set, because the four highest offices are distributed across bodies in a way that is not intuitive. The Prime Minister chairs the Inter-State Council and NITI Aayog; the Union Home Minister chairs the Zonal Councils and, since 2018, the North Eastern Council; the President appoints and nominates but presides over nothing of this kind. Note the exam-date anchor — the arrangement in the answer was only three months old when this paper was set, and it remains in force, with the Union Home Minister continuing as the Council's Chairman.

• The North Eastern Council is a statutory body created by the North Eastern Council Act, 1971, and came into being on 7 November 1972.
• A Union Cabinet decision of June 2018 made the Union Home Minister its ex officio Chairman and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for DoNER its Vice Chairman.
• Under the amendment of 2002 the Council comprises the Governor and Chief Minister of each constituent state and three members nominated by the President.
• The Union Home Minister is the common chairman of all five Zonal Councils set up under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, and the north-eastern states fall outside those Councils.
• The Inter-State Council, constituted in 1990 under Article 263, is chaired by the Prime Minister.

• Giving the chair to the DoNER Minister, who is the Vice Chairman under the same 2018 decision.
• Assuming the Prime Minister chairs every important council; here it is the Home Minister.
• Treating the North Eastern Council as one of the Zonal Councils — the north-eastern states are outside all five.

Asked as a presiding-officer item, with the office that actually holds the vice-chairmanship planted as the last option.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The North Eastern Council was created by

  • (a)the States Reorganisation Act, 1956
  • (b)the North Eastern Council Act, 1971
  • (c)an order of the President under Article 263
  • (d)a resolution of NITI Aayog

  Answer(b) the North Eastern Council Act, 1971 — it is a statutory body, and came into being on 7 November 1972.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The five Zonal Councils of India are chaired by

  • (a)the Prime Minister
  • (b)the Union Home Minister
  • (c)the senior-most Governor of the zone
  • (d)a Chief Minister on rotation

  Answer(b) the Union Home Minister — the common chairman of all five, under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956.