After the exit of Aruna Roy, government has reconstituted the National Advisory Council by inducting renowned sociologist Virginius Xaxa into the 12-member panel chaired by Sonia Gandhi.
The term of the panel, which has been giving legislative and policy inputs to the government ranging from the seminal rural jobs scheme to the latest food security bill, has been made co-terminus with the term of the present government.
Prof. Xaxa, the new member of the Council, has written extensively on tribal communities of the country and is a Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati.
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Besides Chairperson Ms. Gandhi, the Council has Xaxa, Narendra Jadhav, Pramod Tandon, N C Saxena, A K Shiv Kumar, Deep Joshi, Anu Aga, Farah Naqvi, Mirai Chatterjee, Mihir Shah and Ashis Mondal as members.
Last week, Ms. Roy had written to Ms. Gandhi requesting her not to consider her for another term of the Council. Ms. Gandhi had accepted the request. The term of the previous Council was till May 31.