Mysuru had a special place in S.M. Krishna’s heart and mind

Former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna during a road show in Mysuru.
| Photo Credit: File Photo

Mysuru had a special place in the heart and mind of former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, who passed away in Bengaluru in the early hours of Tuesday after an illustrious political career. The visionary leader not only spent a considerable duration of his student days in Mysuru, but also studied at Maharaja’s College in the city and received his BA degree from the University of Mysore in the 1950s.

Mr. Krishna was also a resident of Ramakrishna Students’ Home in Mysuru during his student days. He had turned nostalgic about his student days at Maharaja’s College in Mysuru during one of his visits to the city as the Chief Minister of the State.

Bengaluru-Mysuru highway

According to S.M. Krishna Abhimanigala Sangha leader Vikrant Deve Gowda, the construction of four-lane highway between Mysuru and Bengaluru and the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Mysuru were among the major infrastructure projects taken up in the region that benefited a large number of people.

While the construction of the ORR saw the prices of agricultural land around Mysuru soar, the travel between Mysuru and Bengaluru was eased to a large extent by the construction of the new highway. “Travel on the highway built during Mr. Krishna’s tenure was free unlike the heavy toll coughed up by the motorists travelling on the new highway,” he said.

Boost for IT

Also, it was during Mr. Krishna’s tenure that IT majors like Infosys began setting up shop in Mysuru thanks to the encouragement from the State government.

It may also be mentioned here that some of the major crises that gripped the S.M. Krishna government between 1999-2004 had their origins in the old Mysore region comprising Chamarajanagar, Mysuru and Mandya.

Abduction of Dr. Rajkumar

The shocking abduction of matinee idol Dr. Rajkumar on the night of July 30, 2000, took place about 80 km from Mysuru in his farmhouse in Gajanur, situated near Karnataka’s border with Tamil Nadu.

The then S.M. Krishna government passed through its most testing times when the hearthrob of Kannada filmgoers Dr. Rajkumar was in the captivity of the dreaded forest bandit Veerappan.

Cauvery dispute

Similarly, the Cauvery dispute kept rearing its head due to the droughts experienced during the late CM’s tenure, affecting the lives of people in the Cauvery heartland of Mandya, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar.