Hyderabad, Feb 18 : The government of Telangana has constituted a nine-member advisory committee for the Telangana Development Planning Society (TGDPS).

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Planning Department Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is the chairman of the committee.

Dalit writer and activist Prof Kancha Ilaiah, anti-child labour activist Prof Shantha Sinha, former chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) Dr Sukhdeo Thorat, social activist Nikhil Dey, Prof Humanshu, Prof Bhukya, Prof Purushotham Reddy and Praveen Chakravarthy have been appointed as members of the advisory committee.

A Government Order (GO) has been issued in this regard. Chief Executive Officer, TGDPS will act as secretary of the advisory committee.

The order mentions that the TGDPS was established to function with various objectives, related to the preparation of disaster mitigation plans; analyse climate change impacts; conduct gap and growth analysis, carry out pilot projects and research in the state's economic and social sector.

'One of the important objectives is to conduct gap and growth analysis of the State's Economic and Social Sectors and carry out modelling, making projections, forecasting, variance analysis and performance monitoring to support short term and long-term planning in the State,' reads the order. The advisory committee has been constituted to achieve this objective.

The GO mentioned that the chairman of the committee may invite subject experts to the meeting of the committee as per the requirement.

The expenditure related to the advisory committee will be met from the funds of TGDPS.

According to the GO issued by Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Principal Secretary to Government, the Chief Executive Officer of TGDPS will take further necessary action.

A preliminary meeting of the advisory committee was held at the Secretariat on Tuesday. It was presided over by Deputy Chief Minister and committee chairman Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.

Meanwhile, the state government received 1,704 applications during the Prajavani programme held at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan on Tuesday. According to officials, 1,304 applications were received for the allotment of houses under the Indiramma scheme.

/IANS