With Sonia Gandhi back at its head,the National Advisory Council NAC is set to be reconstituted. By all accounts,it will aim to give the aam aadmi touch to UPA II. In its first avtar,the NAC was known to track the NREGS,the RTI,the Forest Rights Act and the farm loan waiver. It also courted controversy and was seen as a parallel power centre. The term of the first NAC expired on March 31,2008. But it had run out of steam some time before that since March 23,2006,when Sonia resigned as its chairperson. The first NAC claimed to have drawn in distinguished professionals from diverse fields of development activity. This team prepared concept papers on subjects ranging from the NRHM,the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,the NREGS to panchayati raj and tribal welfare and development,and tracked action taken notes of ministries and departments.
Of the members appointed to NAC I,Aruna Roy,known for her RTI campaign in Rajasthan,quit in June 2006,claiming that she was unhappy with its functioning. Earlier,Jean Dreze,noted development economist,had resigned after the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill was introduced,allegedly because he thought that it diluted the provisions in the first draft.
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