When Mysore was taking steps to check haphazard growth, the municipal body helped the administrators deliver it. And the rulers put in charge some of the finest administrators to lead the municipal body, earning it an honour of sorts: Two dewans of Mysore state headed the municipal body before they rose to the head of the princely state.It’s been 150 years to the municipal administration in the princely town which has evolved into a mini-metro, and flipping through the pages of history reveal some interesting details. When Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was ruling the state, the government started the practice of appointing an administrator to lead the five-decades-old municipal body, which had elected representatives, to manage the affairs, indicating its seriousness about the growth of the city.

In 1906 — when the practice was started — the administrators named M Kantharaj Urs as the president of the municipal council, who was at the helm of affairs till 1910. The able administrator later went on to become the dewan in 1918, a post he held till 1922. He had served as the deputy commissioner of Mysore among other important assignments before being tasked to manage the municipal affairs of Mysore. Between 1924 and 1927, N Madhava Rao headed the administration at the municipal council, and was elevated to be dewan in 1941. Rao was appointed as chief secretary after he moved out of the municipal, council and later became a member of Rajya Sabha. At one point, the president of the municipal body was also heading the City Improvement Trust Board set up in 1902 to ensure that the city’s growth gets a unified command.Interestingly, when the instructions were issued for the constitution of a municipal body in April 1861, the town’s population was 45,000.

Mummudi Krishnaraja Wadiyar was the ruler then. The instruction specified that people should be consulted on works to be implemented and about the tax structure and that they should also have a say in the administration (by giving representation to people). To give effect to these principles, a committee was formed in July 1862, which eventually got Mysore municipal administration. The committee was headed by superintendent of the Ashtagram division. Five officials and three non-officials were appointed as members. The panel included a Hindu and a Muslim and the official members included the executive engineer, the amildar of Mysore taluk and Sar Ameen of Mysore.Surprisingly, the tax to maintain sanitation was abolished while the improvement of the roads and drains received primary attention.

T G Lakshmana Rao, who served as the president of the municipal council in 1914, notes in his work ‘Handbook of the City of Mysore’ that “a market was also constructed and some street lights provided.” According to him, within eight years from the setting up of the body, the resources started to flow as the Mysore government asked the civic body to collect property tax with a rider that town police wing should be looked after by it. Within a span of 10 years, revenue of the body, which was Rs 25,000 in 1862, doubled. By 1890-91, the civic body started to extend grants-in-aid to educational institutions.It was the civic body that decongested Mysore Fort removing the houses inside. In 1888, the municipal body was given legal framework by Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar. The then dewan was K Seshadri Iyer.

After Independence, the practice of appointing president to head the body was done away with and P Seetharamaiah was elected president (1948). Shortly after the body turned 100, it got a woman president — Soundaramma Venkatesh — in 1963.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mysore / by H M Aravind / TNN / April 01st, 2012