The reconstituted National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi got down to business on Thursday, holding its first meeting in the capital and flagging some of the important issues that need its attention. The nearly four-hour-long NAC meeting was followed by about a two-hour-long meeting of the members with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the evening.
That the UPA-2 is keen to push ahead with the food security bill and see it become law came through during Thursday’s meeting itself with the NAC slated to meet again on July 1 to focus on this pending legislation. Importantly, the bill is in keeping with the UPA’s socially inclusive agenda.
Mrs Gandhi herself is keen to see the law through which has been mired in controversies for some time now. Among the issues that the NAC will need to examine when its looks at the need for food security are — who should be the beneficiaries and how much foodgrains need to be provided to them. In her remarks at the meeting, Mrs Gandhi told the members that people have high expectations from the NAC and that it would endeavour to work sincerely. Other issues requiring the NAC’s attention as mentioned by the 14 NAC members ranged from education, heatlh, tribal welfare, land rights and land reforms to extremist violence, communal violence and gender issues.
Urban poverty, Right to Education, welfare of minorities, a social security and safety net for the disadvantaged groups and poverty elimination and employment generation too are some other issues that will get the NAC’s attention. The NAc is also expected to review the government’s flagship programmes.
The meeting began with a presentation by NAC secretary Rita Sharma with details of the work done by the first NAC and the issues that it focused upon. During the discussions, the members agreed the work of the NAC would be to provide policy and legislative inputs to the government with a special focus on social policy.
and the rights of disadvantaged groups. It was also agreed upon that the NAC would also focus on the broad priority areas outlined in the President’s speech to Parliament soon after UPA-2 came to power last year.