‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ comes under focus during discussion on development of Mysuru

Mysuru district in charge Minister H.C. Mahadevappa (second from left) and others elicited public opinion on conceding a comprehensive development plan for Mysuru, on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

The proposal to form ‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ or ‘Bruhat Mysuru Mahanagar Palike’ came under focus during a discussion on integrated development of Mysuru chaired by Minister in charge of Mysuru District H.C. Mahadevappa in the city on Saturday.

The proposal to form a ‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ by merging the City Municipal Corporations and Town Panchayats on the outskirts of Mysuru has been pending before the government for the last few years.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting Mr. Mahadevappa said, the government will compile all the suggestions made by the participants of the meeting and take an appropriate decision on the formation of a ‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ after holding discussions.

He said the meeting was convened on the instructions of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to elicit public opinion from thinkers, writers, citizens, and public-spirited activists before devising a plan of action for the development of Mysuru city and improving the standard of civic amenities provided to its residents.

Pointing out that the erstwhile Congress government headed by Mr. Siddaramaiah had spent about ₹2,500 to ₹3,000 crore during its tenure between 2013 and 2018 to provide drinking water, roads, schools, colleges, hospitals etc., Mr. Mahadevappa said the government will come up with a plan of action to provide more facilities and services to the city during the remaining three and a half years of its present tenure.

During the course of the meeting, former Ministers G.T. Deve Gowda, who represents Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency, and Tanveer Sait, who represents Narasimharaja Assembly constituency emphasised the need for providing civic amenities to residents of layouts situated beyond the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Mysuru and outside the limits of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC).

Intervening in the discussion, Mr. Gowda pointed out that the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) develops a layout and hands it over to the MCC. Raising questions over the responsibility of maintaining the civic amenities of the layouts outside the ORR like underground drainage and drinking water supply, he cited the example of Vijayanagar 4th stage, which is maintained by MCC despite falling outside the ORR, stretching its resources.

Similiarly, former Minister Tanveer Sait hit out at former Mayor Narayan, who urged the authorities to keep the proposal to form a ‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ in abeyance till Mysuru city’s population crossed 50 lakhs. Claiming that a large population of Mysuru resides outside the ORR, he emphasised the need to find suggestions to provide civic amenities to the residents of layouts falling outside the ORR.

Congress leader M. Lakshman also pointed out that people staying in the heart of the city are not the only residents of Mysuru. People staying in far-flung areas on the outskirts were also entitled to proper civic amenities.

Incidentally, a discussion on the proposed ‘Greater Mysuru City Corporation’ comes in the backdrop of MUDA’s recent decision to hand over 17 MUDA layouts and 200 privately developed MUDA-approved layouts to 23 local bodies situated on the outskirts of Mysuru for providing civic amenities.