22 representatives from North American, Asian, African nations on a study tour

Mysore/Mysuru: Delegates from various developing countries in North America, Asia and Africa benefited from the ‘exposure visit’ as part of the International Training Programme on Good Governance and Management of Rural Development Programmes initiated by Centre for Good Governance and Policy Analysis (CGGPA) and National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR), Hyderabad, that was hosted by Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) this morning.

Over 22 delegates came to the MCC Office where they interacted with elected representatives and officials. They were briefed about city governance and its day-to-day affairs and best practices.

The delegates were from countries including Argentina, Cuba, Kenya, Uganda, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Sudan, Tajikistan, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Nigeria.

Their tour programme covers a wide and diverse range of skills and disciplines in good governance towards transforming rural India. They have come to Mysuru to understand and learn the MCC’s initiatives on good governance and e-governance practices.

The delegates were welcomed by Deputy Mayor Dr. G. Roopa and a team of officials including Additional MCC Deputy Commissioner (DC) Somashekar, Revenue DC Dasegowda, Administration DC M.K. Savitha, Council Secretary Rangaswamy, Chief Accounts Officer Kavitha and others.

Briefing about MCC activities

Later, the international delegates were led to the Old Council Hall where MCC Environment Engineer Mythri gave a power-point presentation about the history of Mysuru, the heritage significance and how it managed to get the recognition of Cleanest City in India twice and how it bagged many national-level awards for civic governance and maintaining cleanliness.

She explained the nature of MCC’s day-to-day activities including effective solid waste management, mechanised sweeping, reducing human intervention in cleaning of sewers and drainages, waste collection from a vast area of 65 Wards and their segregation, handling of bio-medical waste, creating compost and its management, zero waste management, paperless administration to the maximum extent possible, rainwater harvesting and also maintenance and beautifying of the city, green initiatives and major works taken up under the Swachh Bharat initiatives.

Later in the interaction, the delegates asked specific questions and cleared their doubts. The presentation helped the delegates learn about the scale and scope of the development programmes being implemented in Mysuru and the amount of planning that went into the various schemes of the Government of India and Karnataka. The participants also learnt about the role of various institutions in rural development such as State Institutes of Rural Development.

Many participants had come from countries that had not laid major emphasis on rural development and this programme opened up various possibilities.

They learnt various programmes like Prime Ministers Housing Programme where financial assistance was given to poor and homeless people to construct their homes, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

Also, a host of programmes initiated and funded by the State Government were explained.

After the session at the MCC, the delegates will be taken around the city to show them heritage structures, Mysore Palace and the Chamundi Hill. They will go back to Bengaluru in the evening.