CHENNAI: Ahead of next year's Assembly elections, the State government has decided to conduct an impact survey covering 1.91 crore households which are receiving various welfare benefits.

The survey will be carried out by 55,706 members of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) over a 12-day period beginning from the New Year, covering both urban and rural areas.

According to the government order issued by Reeta Harish Thakkar, Secretary to the Department of Public (Mudhalvarin Mugavari), the SHG members would evaluate the reach and effectiveness of welfare schemes using beneficiary data compiled by the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA).

The exercise will be monitored by a high-level committee comprising the Additional Chief Secretaries of the Rural Development and Revenue Departments, the Principal Secretary of the Information Technology Department, the Chief Executive Officer of TNeGA, and the Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW).

According to TNeGA, Tamil Nadu has 2.26 crore ration cards, including 89.03 lakh in urban and 1.37 crore in rural areas. Of these, 1.57 crore households are beneficiaries of government schemes. The survey will cover 1,90,98,746 households in total.

The survey will be carried out at a cost of Rs 43.52 crore, of which Rs 21 crore has been allocated to TNCDW. Each SHG member will survey 30 households a day and will be issued an identity card. A remuneration of Rs 6,000 will be provided for the 12-day survey period.

A dedicated mobile application developed by TNeGA will be used for data collection, along with a physical form for recording household details. Once completed, the data will be evaluated by the e-Governance Agency.