While the magnificent Mysore Palace is in its centenary year, the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is gearing up for its sesquicentennial (150 years) celebrations.
MCC, an expanded civic body of the erstwhile Mysore City Municipality, plans to celebrate its 150th anniversary on July 24. A consultative committee is constituted to draft plans for celebrating the event in a grand manner. A sum of Rs 50 lakh has been set aside for the celebrations.
The old town of Mysore of the early 19th century comprised Old Agrahara, Palace Fort area, Dodda Pete (now the commercially busy Asoka Road area) and Lashkar Mohalla constituting its main limits. Some additions, still extant in the eastern and western wings, came up during the reign of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799-1868).
To give effect to the direction of the then British government in India in 1861, a civic committee was formed in July 1862 to administer the city. The committee comprised of the superintendent of Ashtagrama Division as president, five official and three non-official persons.
Initially, a sanitary tax was levied in the form of ‘Kachara Terige’ (tax on rubbish). After its abolition, octroi became the main revenue source for the municipal committee.
Improvements gradually taking shape, the government transferred Mohatarfa collections (house tax) from the government revenue in 1869-70 augmenting the committee’s resources. Maintenance of the town police was made part of its task. A few years later, the privilege of election to the municipal board led to further progress, paving the way for an eight-ward municipality in 1888.
The civic body was upgraded with the Mysore Municipal Regulation, 1906, with 20 municipal councilors. According to 1911, its population was 71,306 in the municipal area covering seven Mohallas with 12,122 houses.
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In 1913-14, the revenue of the Mysore City Municipality was Rs 2.30 lakh, with octroi fetching the highest of Rs 79,705, and expenditure of Rs 2.14 lakh, public works (Rs 72,997) and public health and convenience (Rs 59,002) taking lion’s share.
The municipality was upgraded into a corporation in 1977. The MCC on Sunday encompasses over 128 square kms spread with 65 wards having over 172,000 properties and a population of nearly 900,000. Its 2012-13 budget stood at Rs 427.52 crore.