RTMNU clueless about its land at Ramdaspeth





The land situated behind Hanuman Mandir near Tuli Imperial Hotel at Central Bazar road in Ramdaspeth belongs to Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. (Pic: Anil Futane)

By Vikas Vaidya :

Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) and Dr Panjabrao Krishi Vidypeeth (PDKV) are the two major universities of Vidarbha which own huge land pool. PDKV, somehow, managed to protect its land, but RTMNU, unfortunately, is clueless about its major land pieces. The land on Central Bazar Road, Ramdaspeth is one such piece of land owned by RTMNU but it remains ignorant. RTMNU has received massive properties from philanthropists. Rao Bahadur D Laxminaryan was one such philanthropist who donated huge land to the university. Laxmi Swamy Devi Neni, working as Deputy Collector in 1920s and a contemporary of Rao Bahadur D Laxminarayan, had also donated one acre land (around 43,000 sq ft) at prime Ramdaspeth area right on Central Bazar Road for construction of hostels for students of Nagpur University. Currently, an old house stands on the huge premises behind Rainbow Medinova Hospital. The present market value of the prime land of RTMNU is over Rs 35 crore.

Late Laxmi Swamy, in her Will prepared in 1929, had wished that Nagpur University should become a major centre of learning and a grand hostel for scholars and students should be situated in prime locality. Unfortunately, subsequent bosses of the University did not ever attempt to do the documentation of the ownership of its land. As per the Will of Swamy, the particular land in Ramdaspeth was meant for its students. Most ex-students call this attitude of the University bosses as callous. For, such a prime property is not used as per the Will of Laxmi Swamy. Highly placed sources said that now two private trusts are now fighting among themselves to take possession of this property. The matter was now before the Charity Commissioner and appointment of prospective trustees under section 47 of the Bombay Public Trust Act. When ‘The Hitavada’ contacted Vice Chancellor Dr Subhash Chaudhari, he said, “I was informed that we own that property. I have asked our Estate Officer to get the details of the property.”

‘The Hitavada’ has been constantly taking up this issue since long to get university its land back. The land where, the present Jamnalal Bajaj building stands, was almost confiscated by a politician and then by the Tribal Department. During the regime of Dr S N Pathan as Vice-Chancellor, Tribal Department had performed bhoomipujan. The swift move by this newspaper made university bosses awoke from deep slumber to fight to get back its own land. The bungalow at Dhantoli donated by Shrimati Janakibai Thakur is also in dispute as the tenant there has refused to vacate it and now university is fighting a lengthy and time consuming legal battle.

This bungalow in Dhantoli named ‘Sadaparva’ was donated on February 17, 1944 admeasuring 6240 Sq.Ft. Earlier University did little to remove the tenant staying there. Now it has taken an initiative. If the papers of these properties are well maintained and later utilised or sold, a handsome corpus can be generated and same can be used for academic development by university. Long ago the issue was raised in Senate meeting by the then Senate Member Ambadas Mohite. University had given him the answer in writing mentioning all its properties plus he too got it under Right to Information Act (RTI). RTMNU’s Estate Officer Vinod Ilme had taken lot of efforts to get the Will of Raobahadur D Laxminarayan which university did not have.