Mysuru police chief's new building to be inaugurated by CM tomorrow

Mysuru: The new building of Mysuru City Police Commissioner's office, fashioned on the architectural style of Lalitha Mahal Palace, one of the jewels of the heritage city will be inaugurated by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday evening.

Built on Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, the new building is located in front of the existing police commissioner's office on Mirza Road.

The building is the dream project of retired IPS officer, Kempaiah. It's due to his efforts during his tenure as the city police commissioner between 1996 and 1999 the building became a reality now. He was instrumental in changing the face of Mysuru city police fighting all odds, by getting land for police department and renovating the existing police stations, building most of the police stations, police housing colony in Hebbal industrial area, Police Bhavan, Parade Ground, Police Public School and others in Mysuru. During his tenure, he got the office of police commissioner shifted to a building which housed Police Band. And it was when he was the advisor to the home minister in the Siddaramaiah government, Kempaiah got Rs 23 crore released from the State government for the new police commissioner's office building and a few other infrastructure facilities for police department in Mysuru. Built t a cost of Rs 19.32 crore, the new police commissioner office has lower ground floor, upper ground floor and first floor. The chamber of the police commissioner is on the upper ground floor. While Rs 16.76 crore was approved by the State government for the project on December 25, 2013, an additional Rs 2.60 crore was sanctioned on January 25 this year.

It was to have been inaugurated on March 10, 2018 by the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister Ramalingareddy. But it was cancelled at the last moment following a court case. Three persons — M R Ashok Kumar, C Ravish and Vishwesh Shekar — filed a PIL in the High Court on March 4, 2015, objecting to the new building in the 4.4 acres of land, which they claimed belonged to a park. They claimed that there was a stay and it was not vacated at the time the building was set for inauguration in March 2018. Against this backdrop the inauguration was cancelled.

DCP A N Prakash Gowda told The Hans India, "the necessary changes related to the land on which the building has come up has been done in 'Comprehensive Development Plan'(CDP) by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in 2010 itself. And there are no legal hurdles any more. And the issues in the court are also resolved," he said.