TN plan panel to tie up with univs to study welfare schemes

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission will be hiring educational institutions to conduct a study on the impact of various welfare schemes, including that for students, launched by the state government.

The study will be conducted under the Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department, which monitors all the welfare programmes and schemes implemented by various departments.

A senior official from Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department told DT Next that the department will be tying up with empanel organisations and institutions that undertake activities such as data collection, policy advisory and consulting activities in the private, public, or not-for-profit sectors.

“The empanelment aims to seek expert assistance and inputs for the State Planning Commission in the collection of data and conduct of evaluation and impact assessment of various schemes and programmes of the government,” he added.

Stating that the institutions will undertake socio-economic surveys/ studies on households, individual beneficiaries and enterprises, the official said after collecting the data, a detailed analysis will be done with advanced software tools and reports will be generated accordingly.

Pointing out that the commission continuously supports the government in an advisory role on various policy matters related to the development of the State, he said, accordingly, the planning commission uses evidence from relevant data for suggesting suitable interventions to the government.

“The commission envisages advising the government on the schemes and programmes and suggesting course correction, if any, to the authorities concerned,” he added.

The official said that in addition to the study on the existing schemes, the commission will also advise on new schemes to be adopted by the government and review the process of implementation and progress achieved on various ongoing programmes.

According to the official, the schemes will also be reviewed by the department which implements the welfare projects.