Taking a leaf out of Sonia Gandhi’s policy model, the Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is planning to constitute a state-level advisory council with experts from various fields to offer recommendations on improving the quality of governance.
This is similar to the National Advisory Council (NAC) formed by the first UPA government at the Centre in June 2004. The 14-member Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, comprised experts from diverse fields, including politics, science, and civil society. Serving as a link between civil society and the central government, it had played a key role in drafting several key legislations passed by both UPA governments. They include the Right to Information Act, MNREGA, Food Security Bill and Right to Education Act.
The Telangana model too is aimed at roping in civil society members and experts from various fields. To begin with, the advisory council, headed by the Chief Minister, will make suggestions pertaining to education, and employment sectors. Public intellectuals and activists such as Prof. Haragopal, Akunuri Murali, Professor K Nageshwar, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Telangana president RS Praveen Kumar, a former IPS officer, are likely to be appointed as members.
The council would advise the government on refining the curriculum, which would help students find employment. The appointments of the Vice-Chancellors would also be done after consulting with the advisory council, the Chief Minister said during an informal interaction with the media.
It may be pointed out that Prof Haragopal and former IAS officer Akunuri Murali were staunch critics of Telangana’s previous regime headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao. Murali, a Dalit IAS officer, quit the service in 2019 after facing alleged discrimination.
RS Praveen Kumar, a Dalit IPS officer-turned-politician, previously worked as the Secretary of the Telangana Residential Welfare Schools. He was credited with overhauling government-affiliated schools and improving their performance through various innovative measures. Under his guidance, several students from marginalised communities were able to secure seats in prestigious universities such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Delhi University.
According to the Chief Minister, all the state universities proposed skill upgradation and development universities would be brought under the ambit of the advisory council.
The new advisory council is also expected to have experts from the tech industry, who will advise the CM on mechanisms to generate employment.
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