Mysuru: The Board meeting of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) chaired by its Chairman and the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru, G. Lakshmikanth Reddy was held today for the second time within a span of one month, after the DC Lakshmikanth Reddy took over as the Chairman of MUDA.

The meeting began at 11.30 am at the meeting hall of MUDA and as anticipated, there were discussions over the recent process of handing over of 240 residential layouts to various local bodies — Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), Hootagalli City Municipal Council (CMC), Bogadi, Srirampura and Rammanahalli Town Panchayats — that was completed on Friday.

Some of the members took exception to the initiation of handing over of layouts, with 700 more underway and expected to be completed by December, as some of them remain to be fully developed.

If such layouts are transferred to the jurisdiction of local bodies which are already facing revenue crunch, they will be helpless to take the development works further, the members argued.

However, some of the MUDA officials explained that the role of MUDA is restricted to plan approval authority, while it is the duty of local bodies to issue khata, collect tax and provide other related services. It will help in augmenting the revenue sources to facilitate the development works, they explained.

The meeting is expected to discuss about the pending approvals for development of layouts, release of sites already allotted to the applicants by MUDA approved private layouts and other subjects of importance.  

During the previous meeting held on Nov. 7, MLA T.S. Srivatsa had raised the issue of illegal allotment of sites under 50:50 scheme by MUDA, demanding the cancellation of all those sites. The proceedings of the meeting have been sent to the Government, it is said.

MLAs G.T. Devegowda, Tanveer Sait, T.S. Srivatsa, K. Harishgowda, Darshan Dhruvanarayan and Ramesh Babu Bandisidde Gowda, MLCs A.H. Vishwanath, C.N.  Manjegowda,  Madhu G.  Madegowda, K. Vivekananda, Dr. D. Thimmaiah and Dinesh Gooligowda, MUDA Commissioner A.N. Raghunandan, Secretary Prasanna Kumar, City Police Commissioner Seema Latkar and others                   were present.

The meeting was in progress when we went to press.