CM MK Stalin wants planners to assess success of schemes

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin urged the deputy chairperson and members of the State Planning Commission to study the benefits of the government’s various welfare schemes to the people and file reports on them, besides examining if the advice rendered by them on different fronts was being put to proper use by the diverse government departments.

Addressing the fourth meeting of the State Planning Commission on Friday, Stalin, who is the chairperson of the body, told the members to expedite the work on the preparation of the waste management policy, agricultural land use policy, water resources policy, employment and skill development policy and housing policy.

Thanking the Commission for successfully devising the policies on gender dysphoria, medical rights, tourism, handloom, textile thread, MSMEs, Industry-4.0 and electric vehicles for the State , he said the Commission was guiding the government in the policy decisions and also ensuring that it was progressing in the right path.

Referring to the ‘Naan Mudhalvam’ (I am Leader) scheme launched by the government among the students to prepare them for pursuing careers after their education and had help 1,74,183 youth get jobs, Stalin called upon the Planning Commission members to study the scheme’s impact to find out how much it had been beneficial to those who availed of it.

A scheme’s success should not be assessed on the basis of the expenditure but its usefulness and the Commission should undertake studies on those lines, including the latest Kalaignar Women’s Rights Scheme, which was being lauded by the media quoting beneficiaries.

Though there was a post on Facebook that lauded the women’s rights scheme as it had led to a Rs 3 lakh investment in his village that came in through 300 women each getting Rs 1000 and had enhanced money circulation, Stalin wanted the Commission to conduct proper studies on its impact in society.

Calling upon the Commission to integrate the economic and statistics department and the assessment and investigation department along with its activities, he wanted them to use field investigations for their studies rather than depend on data alone.