Mihir Shah, Ashis Mondal new faces in reconstituted NAC

Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission, and Ashis Mondal, founder of the Bhopal-based NGO, Action for Social Advancement, have been inducted as members in the advisory panel which provides policy inputs to the government.

The reconstitution of the NAC, which focuses on social policy and rights of disadvantaged groups, became necessary as its term had expired on May 31.

A 14-member panel earlier, the re-constituted NAC has 12 members, including chairperson Gandhi.

Noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, bureaucrat- turned-activist Harsh Mander and academician Madhav Gadgil do not find a place in the re-constituted panel.

The notification for reconstitution of NAC was issued yesterday and the term of panel will be till May 31, 2013.

Members of the panel who have been renominated are N C Saxena, Narendra Jadhav, Pramod Tandon, Aruna Roy, A K Shiva Kumar, Deep Joshi, Anu Aga, Farah Naqvi and Mirai Chatterjee.

Jean Dreze, who was appointed member of the NAC in 2009, had quit after the panel had sent its recommendations to the government on the Food Security Bill.

Ram Dayal Munda, a prominent tribal leader and NAC member since 2009, passed away in September last year.

A meeting of the NAC which was scheduled today has been postponed to July 6.

Currently, the NAC is deliberating on issues like watershed development, climate-smart agriculture and improving sex ratio at birth.