New Delhi, May 30: Union home minister Shivraj Patil is likely to take up sensitive issues like Naxalism, river water sharing, woman and child trafficking and farmers’ suicides at the southern zonal council meet in Pondicherry tomorrow.

The minister, who has already held discussions with three zonal councils ? the one with the eastern zone was in Ranchi today ? will meet the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry.

The zonal council meetings are being held after a gap of nearly 14 years. The Sarkaria Commission had recommended that the Centre-state meetings should be held at least twice a year. The home minister now wants to revive it and wants them to be held at least once every year.

The southern states are expected to bring up the issues of revision of royalty rates of different mineral ores and coal and more funds and paramilitary forces to tackle extremist groups.

Going by what the home minister has done so far, sharing of information between states to tackle criminal elements seems to be on top of Patil’s agenda.

According to ministry officials, Patil is keen on the commissioning of Polnet, a satellite-disc telecom system that will enable linking of police stations across the country, district and state headquarters and central paramilitary forces.

“To facilitate better sharing of crime information, the Crime Criminal Information System (CCIS) and Organised Crime Intelligence System (OCIS) pilot projects are being taken up by the Government of India and I hope the state governments will fully co-operate and make full use of the project,” Patil said in Ranchi.

Another high-priority task for the home ministry is to get the recently-passed Right to Information Bill implemented at the state level.

He has recommended the setting up of disaster management authorities at state and district levels.