The debate on the proposed Greater Mysore that entails incorporating 41 villages under the ambits of the Mysore City Corporation (MCC), thus expanding the outer limits of the urban conurbation, has been set in motion.
Greater Mysore or Bruhat Mysore Mahanagar Palike has been conceived ostensibly with the objective of ensuring a comprehensive spatial planning for the entire area coming under the urban conurbation of Mysore. If approved, the city limits will more than double from the existing 128 sq. km to 298 sq. km and the MCC will be reconfigured as the number of wards will increase from 65 to 100 or 105 depending on the population.
The population of the urban agglomeration after redefining its boundaries will cross 10 lakh, thus making Mysore one of the 50 cities in the country with a million-plus population. [Mysore, however, narrowly missed making it to the list of million-plus cities as the population of Mysore Urban Agglomeration as per 2011 census was 9.83 lakh.]
Greater Mysore is also expected to generate additional revenue as the property tax base will widen while the grants from the State Government for providing civic amenities is expected to double. The supporters of Greater Mysore argue that the horizontal sprawl of the city would devour the surrounding villages and gram panchayats are urbanising without any planning and hence it is better to include them in the comprehensive development plan of Mysore.
The growth pattern charted by the peripheral areas may not be in consonance with the planned development envisaged for Mysore and when the two merge in a few years from now, due to the urban sprawl, the result may not be entirely edifying. The city's morphological features would be marked by islands of planned development surrounded by chaos and disorganised growth. So the arguments in favour of Greater Mysore are hard to ignore.
Already the city outskirts such as Hinkal, Bogadi, Metagalli, Hootgalli and Alanahalli are highly urbanised and the MCC provides civic amenities to some of them incluidng Chamundi Hill, Kesare, Kurubarahalli, Hebbal, Dattagalli, Srirampura, Metagalli and Rammanahalli. But the MCC receives no revenue by way of tax for the services rendered. The MCC also serves the industrial suburbs of Metagalli, Hootgalli etc and there is scope for levying tax on industries for the services rendered by way of water supply.
The concept of Greater Mysore was mooted more than an year ago and the proposal has been introduced for a debate in the MCC council which will take up the issue in its future meetings. It is also highly unlikely that a serious issue of redefining the limits of the city or expanding the urban conurbation can be decided by the local municipal council without the concurrence of the State Government which may have blessed the idea in advance and the “democratic exercise” of taking public opinion into account may be played out.
