T.N. Planning Commission submits four reports to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin

The State Planning Commission on Monday submitted four detailed reports on various subjects to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at the Secretariat in Chennai.

One of the reports called for profiling and data organisation of all mines in Tamil Nadu urgently to facilitate large-scale land-use planning. The report ‘Mapping Mines in Tamil Nadu — Assessing their Restoration Potential’ said the process could begin with mines exceeding a certain size threshold. Calling for collecting the details of all mines and capturing drone images, it said detailed and up-to-date information about mines would streamline the study and planning process for restoration and land-use planning at the State-level.

Deputy Chief Minister and SPC’s ex-officio Vice-Chairperson Udhayanidhi Stalin, SPC’s executive chairperson J. Jeyaranjan, and senior officials submitted the reports to the Chief Minister.

The report ‘Child Nutrition — Key Challenges and Strategies’ recommended emphasis on improving linear growth among children to reduce stunting, with a focus on early-life interventions. It called for focus on the first 1,000 days of life but also stressed extending interventions to pre-pregnancy and adolescence. Regular monitoring of children for weight, height, and mid-upper arm circumference, improving dietary diversity for young children were among the recommendations.

The report ‘Urban Growth and Thermal Stress: A Decadal Assessment of Built-up Area and Climate Interactions in Tamil Nadu’ called for a comprehensive heat mitigation strategy for the State. It recommended community engagement, data-driven monitoring, block-level interventions, building construction guidelines, and urbanisation regulations. The regulations include urban infrastructure and land-use planning, urban building construction guidelines, hilly region construction regulations, rural area construction standards, and retrofitting existing structures, among others.

The ‘Framework for Nature-based Solutions for Enhanced Urban Resilience in Tier 2 Cities of Tamil Nadu – Framework Report’ said that Tamil Nadu reflected the global trends vividly with its Tier 2 cities experiencing accelerated economic and demographic expansion. “This urban growth, however, is contrasted against rising climate risks including urban floods, decline in groundwater, cyclones and ecological fragmentation, calling for urgent, sustainable, and resilient urban planning approaches,” it said.

The proposed framework developed jointly by TN-SLURB, GIZ and CUBE presented a strategic and technical framework for mainstreaming NBS into the urban planning systems of Tier 2 cities in Tamil Nadu, it said.