Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin revamped the State Development Policy Council (SDPC) and inducted industrialist Mallika Srinivasan and transgender Narthaki Nataraj, besides DMK MLA from Mannargudi T R B Rajaa among others.
Economist J Jayaranjan has been named vice chairman of the council.
Chief minister Stalin will be its chairman.
Professor R Srinivasan, department of econometrics, University of Madras, will be the permanent member of the council.
Professor M Vijayabaskar, Professor Sulthan Ahmed Ismail, former IAS officer M Deenabandu, vascular surgeon J Amalorpavanathan and Siddha practitioner G Sivaraman will be the other eight part-time members of the council, a state government release said.
The induction of Nataraj, who was the first transgender to be honoured with a Padma Shri in 2019, and Mallika Srinivasan, CMD, TAFE Limited, and a third-term legislator Rajaa, who recently obtained a doctorate, and a former senate member of the University of Madras has broad-based the representation to the council.
“We promised in our manifesto to broad base such councils that will suggest areas of focus to put Tamil Nadu on the growth path across sectors.
Another council that will advise the state on finance is likely to be announced soon,” said DMK spokesman T K S Elangovan.
Policy body was reorganised by previous govtA State Planning Commission was originally established by former chief minister M Karunanidhi in 1971 as an advisory body to recommend developmental schemes for the state.
While presenting the state’s budget in 2017, finance minister D Jayakumar had promised to reorganise the Planning Commission as SDPC and facilitate it to play a larger role including suggesting ways to achieve higher economic growth for Tamil Nadu.
His promise was fulfilled three years later, when the previous AIADMK government formed the SDPC on April 23, 2020 but retained former state finance minister C Ponnaiyan as its vice-chairman, a post he was handling for the State Planning Commission.
Among the other part-time members, Vijayabaskar is with Madras Institute of Development Studies, while Ismail, an ecologist, was formerly director of EcoScience Research Foundation.
Amalorpavanathan was the former head of vascular surgery, Madras Medical College and also the convenor of the cadaver organ transplant programme in the state