The 150th anniversary celebration of Mysore City Corporation (MCC) will be etched in memory for long. Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday announced Rs five crore grant for the development of the city of palaces.
Speaking after inaugurating ‘150 Sambhrama’ at Kalamandira in the city, the chief minister was quick to respond following a request made by medical education and district in-charge minister S A Ramdas.
In the wake of Lansdowne building mishap where four people were killed after the roof of a shop collapsed, the chief minister said efforts should be on maintaining heritage buildings in the city including Amba Vilas Palace.
He also announced that 24x7 water supply in Mysore will soon be implemented. The government is committed towards the overall development of the city.
Hailing the erstwhile rulers of Mysore Wadiyars who made then Mysore state a model, the chief minister acknowledged that Maharani’s College for Women in Mysore, a first of its kind in south India, was also the inspiration for Mooru Savira Mutt to start a similar institution in Hubli-Dharwad.
Most importantly the city of Mysore had street lamps in the early 20th century itself, thanks to the brainy people like Sir M Visvesvaraya and Dewan Poornaiah, besides Kuvempu who made the soil great.
Saying that Nada Habba Dasara is one of the sources of energy for Mysoreans, the chief minister said that Rs 10 crore grant for the festival was included in the State’s budget after BJP came to power in the State.
Favouring well-planned growth of cities, the chief minister said more number of rural people are migrating to urban parts. Earlier it was vice-versa with majority of the population living in villages.
Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait emphasised on taking measures to check the recurrence of Lansdowne building-like mishap with the city having 217 old structures.
Earlier the chief minister distributed cheques for Rs 50,000 as relief from MCC to each of the kin of Anand and Jnanaprakash brothers, Poornima (Annapoorna) and Lokesh Nayak, who were killed in Lansdowne mishap.
Mayor M C Rajeshwari, deputy mayor Mahadevappa, MLA H S Shankarlinge Gowda, KHB chairman G T Devegowda, MLC Siddaraju, ZP president Bhagya Shivamurthy and others were present.
Rewind thru photos
A photo exhibition organised as part of the celebration helped take a peek into the Mysore of the past. From the water filled Gopura tank near Doddakere to crowd filled Nehru Circle with an island in the middle (demolished later), Lansdowne building to Dasara procession, most sepia coloured photos made the expo visit worthy. That apart, a model of waste management in city grabbed the attention of all. Besides, various activities of the civic body - plastic raids to segregation of waste among several others in the form of photographs made the expo complete.
