Three years after it announced it’s decision to replace the State Planning Commission with another body in 2017, the Tamil Nadu government has recently reconstituted the State Planning Commission as the State Development Policy Council (SDPC). A Government Order in this regard was issued last month.
The SDPC would be headed by the Chief Minister like the erstwhile State Planning Commission and would have a Vice-Chairman, a permanent member and 12 part-time members, who are experts in various fields, besides consultants with specific expertise.
“The State Planning Commission has been reconstituted as State Development Policy Council. With some of the functions of the erstwhile Planning Commission such as planning, the SDPC would have additional responsibilities such as monitoring and evaluation of various State government schemes,” SDPC Vice-Chairman C. Ponnaiyan told The Hindu.
Mr. Ponnaiyan said the permanent member would be appointed within a week and several profiles were being scrutinised for part-time members and consultants. The SDPC would focus on all three parts of the development — agriculture, which is the primary sector, industries, which form the secondary sector and consumer services, which constitute the tertiary sector. The SDPC would continue to function from the fifth floor of Ezhilagam complex in Chepauk here.
On March 16, 2017, then Finance Minister D. Jayakumar, while presenting the Budget for 2017-2018 in the Assembly said the State government would replace the State Planning Commission with the State Development Policy Council to advise on policy coherence and formulation of programmes to guide the development of the State.
He had referred to the Centre's decision to do away with the distinction between plan and non-plan allocations in Budget formulation from 2017-2018. “We welcome this move, which has been the long-standing demand of the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, as it would simplify the budgetary process and keep the focus firmly on the functional classification of expenditure,” Mr. Jayakumar said.
