NEW DELHI: Agricultural economist Ashok Gulati has declined NITI Aayog’s invitation to be part of a panel of experts the government’s premier think tank is consulting for reforming the sector by 2020.The reputed economist last week sought exemption from being included in the panel of experts for India@75, an attempt to make India a developed nation by the 75th year of Independence, saying he saw no utility in the formation of a new group to address farmers’ woes.“I am not sure what value this group can add after four major reports of various committees by the new govt on agri-food space have already been submitted,” Gulati wrote in reply to an emailed invitation sent by B Ganeshram, research officer, NITI Aayog for a meeting of the “expert group for agriculture and allied activities for preparation of development agenda for India@75”.The first meeting of the task force was scheduled to be held in Delhi on September 21 under the chairmanship of Ramesh Chand, member (agriculture) at NITI Aayog. Gulati did not attend the meeting.He wrote in the email that a high-level committee appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2014 to reorganise food management system in the country had recommended broadly moving to direct benefit transfer or DBT in food and fertilizer subsidies that can save thousands of crores of rupees that can be invested in irrigation. Although the government undertook some pilot schemes on DBT, these are yet to be scaled up, he said. Gulati expressed surprise at his inclusion in the panel of experts. “I am surprised as no one from NITI asked me about it or sought my consent. I don’t know how NITI functions, but I do feel that the minimum courtesy is to check with a member before announcing anyone’s name in an official group being formed by the GoI… In any case, I would, therefore, most humbly request that I may be excused from this list of experts and this exercise of yet another committee,” he wrote.When asked about his decision to decline NITI Aayog’s invitation, Gulati told ET that he had nothing against the government but he wanted to make his point clear that the government needs to act on suggestions given by multiple committees in the past rather than convening new expert groups.“The government needs to act, not keep taking suggestions. Multiple volumes of suggestions have been sent to the government in the past few months. The farmers’ conditions have not improved, which shows there is something lacking on the ground,” Gulati told ET.In his email declining NITI Aayog’s invitation, Gulati referred to some such expert groups including a task force on agriculture set up by the PMO within the think tank that submitted its report in May 2016 with various recommendations on agriculture sector. Then the committee on doubling farmers’ income by 2022 was set up and it submitted four volumes of 718 pages on August 14, with another 10 volumes due, which may have more than 300 recommendations.And in August, the government also issued its Three Year Action Agenda, including that for agriculture, the email said.“Given all this backdrop, I am not sure what this expert group is supposed to do. There is no dearth of recommendations, and several experts were already involved in those exercises. The GoI has to decide what it wants to do and just focus on three to five major things, and implement those things well, to turn around agriculture and the fate of peasants, which is becoming precarious by the day. We don’t need another set of 100 recommendations for New India@75,” Gulati wrote to NITI Aayog.A senior NITI Aayog official said on condition of anonymity that Gulati’s scathing reply and boycott of meeting would not impact the work of the organisation which is focused on taking suggestions from all stakeholders.“The attempt is to make the process consultative and get suggestions from all experts. Complex and diverse issues take time to be solved,” the official said.