Ghaziabad: In a move that is likely to hamper the education and career prospects of thousands of management students, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has cancelled land allotment worth several hundred crores to Ghaziabad-based Institute of Management Technology (IMT). The institute is owned by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's family and is headed by his son, Bakul Nath.
The action was taken on a complaint filed by BJP leader Rajendra Tyagi, who accused the college owners of fraudulently taking the possession of 15 acres of prime land in the heart of Ghaziabad, a few miles away from the national capital.
Confirming the news, Tyagi said: "Acting on my complaint, the allotment of land, measuring around 10,841 square metres, has been cancelled by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA). The construction done on the campus will now be demolished."
The IMT website says that the prestigious institute was founded by Kamal Nath's father Mahendra Nath in the 1970s. The institute, at present, holds high rankings among the private B schools in the country.
Tyagi said the land belonged to the state-run Chowdhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) and he had documentary evidence to prove that the IMT grabbed it through fraudulent means. "Documents reveal that the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) in 1973 allotted the IMT a plot near the Rajnagar Extension. The Institute was supposed to be built on this land.”
"Currently, IMT's distance learning centre is established on the UPSIDC plot, whereas the IMT main campus is built on a nearby land which was actually owned by CCSU's Lajpat Rai Degree College," Tyagi claimed.
Based on his complaint, Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik, who is also the chancellor of the CCSU, shot off a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath to initiate a probe in the case.
However, a close aide of the Madhya Pradesh chief minister last week said that the charges levelled by the BJP leader were baseless and the probe initiated by the Uttar Pradesh government was to harass Nath's family.