Chennai, Dec 9 (IANS) With the Assembly election on the horizon, the Tamil Nadu government has put its administrative machinery into overdrive, prioritising the rollout of flagship welfare schemes and the filling of long-pending vacancies across departments.

The renewed push covers everything from the restart of the free laptop distribution scheme for students to the expansion of the Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thogai assistance for women, besides expedited recruitment at the grassroots level.

Chief Minister M. K. Stalin is set to formally kick-start the fresh phase of free laptop distribution to college students, officials said.

Under the first phase of the much-awaited programme, around 10 lakh students from arts and science colleges, engineering institutions, agricultural universities and medical colleges will receive laptops.

Another 10 lakh students are expected to be covered in the second phase. The scheme, announced in the 2025–26 State Budget, has been allocated a substantial outlay of Rs 2,000 crore.

Sources in the Higher Education Department said procurement has been largely completed, and final quality checks are currently underway.

An expert committee comprising faculty from Anna University and IIT Madras, along with officials from the National Informatics Centre, is overseeing the implementation process.

Heads of government colleges have been directed to identify eligible beneficiaries and submit the details without delay.

In another major move, the Chief Minister will launch the expanded Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thogai scheme on December 12.

After relaxing certain eligibility criteria, the government expects to bring more women under its ambit. Of the 28 lakh fresh applications received, 15 lakh women will be newly added as beneficiaries, taking the total coverage to about 1.30 crore women across the State.

The pace of implementation of this scheme had earlier drawn criticism from the Opposition. Alongside welfare measures, the government is also fast-tracking appointments to vacant posts. Apart from recruitments through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, district administrations are being tasked with filling lower-level posts such as watchmen and office assistants through direct recruitment.

According to officials in the Revenue Administration Department, around 1,500 village administrative officer posts will be filled by the end of this month, with call letters already uploaded on the government portal.

Other district-level appointments are expected to be completed within the next 20 days, signalling a broad administrative push before the election code comes into force.

–IANS

aal/svn