The government has reconstituted the NationalAdvisory Council (NAC) chaired by Sonia Gandhi by dropping three members andinducting two new faces.
Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission, and Ashis Mondal,founder of the Bhopal-based NGO, Action for Social Advancement, have beeninducted in the advisory panel for a period of one year.
Noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, bureaucrat-turned-activist Harsh Mander and academician Madhav Gadgil have been deniedrenomination.
The tenure of the NAC had expired on May 31. The governmentreconstituted the advisory panel yesterday making it a 12-member body,including Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Other members of the panel who have been renominated are N CSaxena, Narendra Jadhav, Pramod Tandon, Aruna Roy, A K Shiva Kumar, Deep Joshi,Anu Aga, Farah Naqvi and Mirai Chatterjee. The tenure of the members of thereconstituted panel is till May 31, 2013.
Jean Dreze, who was appointed member of the NAC in 2009, hadquit after the panel had sent its recommendations to the government on the FoodSecurity Bill.
Ram Dayal Munda, a prominent tribal leader and NAC membersince 2009, passed away in September last year.
A meeting of the NAC which was scheduled today has beenpostponed to July 6.
Currently, the NAC is deliberating on issues like watersheddevelopment, climate-smart agriculture and improving sex ratio at birth.