MUDA presents Rs 2.77-cr surplus budget; projects Rs 500 cr revenue

The annual budget of the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) was tabled on Saturday. The budget has not proposed any new layouts.

MUDA Commissioner Dr M Mahesh in his budget speech said that MUDA projects a total revenue of Rs 500 crore from different sources and has pegged the expenditure at Rs 497.23 crore with a surplus of Rs 2.77 crore. Though the commissioner proposed housing facility at affordable costs, MUDA has reserved only Rs 75 crore for the same. Old projects such as distribution of 1,764 sites at Rabindranath Tagore Nagar (R T Nagar) and 545 sites at Lalathadri Nagar, First Stage, are the highlights of the budget. Maximum funds have been reserved for road development, construction of commercial complexes and provision of basic facilities.

MUDA aims to collect pending Rs 3.50 crore from the houses constructed by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and Rs 140 crore from distribution of sites. The authority has expected Rs 200 crore from auction of corner sites and Rs 1 crore from the houses constructed under Swayam Vasati project.

MUDA would get Rs 5 crore revenue from auctioning individual houses and Rs 30 crore from the distribution of civic amenity sites. The commissioner said that Rs 5 crore will be collected as fee for monitoring and development of private layouts, Rs 30 crore fee for Town Planning and monitoring, and Rs 85 crore from other sources.

The commissioner announced a sum of Rs 10.45 crore for underground drainage system and to develop basic facilities in the villages adjoining MUDA limits. The project will be introduced in the villages in Chamundeshwari, Varuna and Nanjangud Assembly constituencies.

MUDA has earmarked Rs 1 crore to provide gym equipment in parks and hopes to develop parks in Vijaynagar IV Stage, Lalithadri Nagar, Shanthaveri Gopal Gowda Nagar, R T Nagar and other private layouts. The commissioner said Rs 3.90 crore has been reserved for planting one lakh saplings.

‘Layouts poorly maintained’

MLC K T Srikantegowda said that there is no proposal for new layouts and the budget has not mentioned about the basic project. MLA G T Devegowda said that neither Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) nor MUDA is maintaining the layouts that were recently handed over by MUDA to the MCC.  Devegowda said none are aware of MUDA’s properties and it should have found a mention in the budget.

MLA M K Somashekar said that the budget has no proposal on distribution of sites to poor and economically backward class people. There should be reservation among poor people in connection with site distribution, he said.

MLA Vasu said that MUDA is not conducting a survey of the people who need sites. He said the authorities should ensure that no project is dropped from the budget. Vasu insisted that roads in Kumbarakoppal should be developed. MUDA Chairman D Dhruvakumar was also present.

Previous budget

The last budget had expected to generate a revenue of Rs 411.38 crore but MUDA could generate only Rs 258.58 crore. Similarly, there was a proposal to spend Rs 410.19 crore but it spent only Rs 254.84 crore.