A 55-year-old institution in Tamil Nadu may soon be consigned to history. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam-led government is actively considering the abolition of the State Planning Commission (SPC), and the signals have been visible for a while: the posts of Vice-Chairperson and full-time members have not been filled since the team appointed by the previous DMK government resigned.
Key facts
- The SPC was formed 55 years ago, in the era of planned development.
- By convention, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay is its ex-officio Chairperson.
- Chief Secretary M. Sai Kumar and Finance Secretary M. A. Siddique are ex-officio members; at present, the body has only an IAS officer as Member-Secretary.
- The government is weighing subject-specific committees of experts as a replacement.
Why the government wants to wind it up
The reasoning, offered by a senior official, is blunt.
The idea is "to abolish" the concept of the Planning Commission, the official says, arguing that its "only contribution" is to provide policy inputs.
The alternative model is already in motion. The government has constituted a committee chaired by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the now-abolished Union Planning Commission, to recommend measures to strengthen own-tax and non-tax revenues, improve buoyancy, plug leakages and increase fiscal self-reliance. Instead of maintaining a standing body of experts, the TVK government hopes to derive more benefits by tapping, through different committees, into the services of various experts, according to sources. It also draws on the Department of Economics and Statistics (DoES) and the Department of Evaluation and Applied Research (DEAR) for policy advice.
Scrapped once, revived once
This is not the first time the SPC has faced the axe. The AIADMK government first announced the plan to do away with it in March 2017, saying it would be replaced by a State Development Policy Council (SDPC) to advise on policy coherence and the formulation of programmes. The SDPC came into being in April 2020 — but three months after the DMK returned to power in May 2021, it was rechristened as the SPC.
On its website, the SPC describes itself "as an apex advisory body which provides evidence-based policy guidance to promote holistic growth and development in the State".
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 7, 1971 | The Hindu reports the new body's brief: assess the State's resources and plan their balanced utilisation |
| March 2017 | AIADMK government announces plan to replace the SPC with the SDPC |
| April 2020 | SDPC comes into being |
| May 2021 | DMK returns to power; three months later, the SDPC is rechristened as the SPC |
| September 2026 | TVK government mulls abolition; top SPC posts lie vacant |
Roots in the planned-development era
When the SPC was conceived in the early 1970s, the country was in the mode of planned development, and the new body's brief was to assess the State's resources and formulate a plan for their most effective and balanced utilisation. E.P. Royappa was made Vice-Chairman after he was ousted from the post of Chief Secretary; after one more transfer, he challenged its validity in the Supreme Court, but lost his case.
Civil servants V. Karthikeyan (1983) and C.V.R. Panikar (1985) also headed the body. After M. Karunanidhi of the DMK came back to power in January 1989, the practice of naming the incumbent Chief Minister as the ex-officio head was revived — and it has held since. Those who have served as Vice-Chairperson include K.A. Mathiazhagan (1974), V. Ramaiah (1976), Kovai Chezhian (1978), M. Muthuswami (1983), V. R. Nedunchezhian (1992), C. Ponnaiyan (2020) and veteran civil servant Santha Sheela Nair (2011).
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