Mysuru: Eight months after Mysuru Development Authority (MDA) was created by dissolving the erstwhile Mysuru Urban Development Authority (Muda), the new urban body is yet to get a full-time commissioner, raising concerns over administrative efficiency and decision-making.Formed in May 2025, MDA functioned under an acting commissioner, a junior-grade Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer, in the absence of a regular appointment. According to the MDA Act 2024, Section 12, the govt shall appoint an officer of the rank of IAS or a senior scale and above-rank officer of KAS to be commissioner of the authority. A week after MDA’s formation, a special land acquisition officer was appointed as the commissioner in charge. Since then, there has been just no word on the appointment of a full-time commissioner. Officials and stakeholders said the lack of a full-time commissioner affected the authority’s ability to take timely decisions on key matters, including planning approvals, project execution, land-related issues, and coordination with other departments. Adish Sagar, a real estate consultant, said MDA was formed after the previous MUDA was in the news for all the wrong reasons over the allotment of sites. “We hoped the new MDA would serve some justice to those looking to acquire sites, but the delay in the appointment of an IAS-cadre officer as commissioner to MDA and the failure to set up a full MDA board indicate that nothing has changed,” he complained. With Mysuru witnessing a steady growth and rising demand for infrastructure and planned development, the prolonged absence of a full-time commissioner and an empowered governing body have turned out to be quite a setback for the civic authority. A developer said MDA still followed the same old procedures while releasing developed sites, unlike BDA, which regularly held meetings and disposed of applications quickly. MDA has had only two meetings since its creation, with no monthly meetings as was promised, the developer noted. MDA’s commissioner in charge, K R Rakshith, told TOI that according to MDA rules, some procedures of the erstwhile Muda were still being followed by the administration.
