VAMNICOM: Threatened by builder’s greed!

The premier cooperative institute of the country Vaikunthlal Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) has fallen prey to the lust of builders’ lobby as a helpless management is reduced to a mere onlooker. The emerging situation threatens to demolish nearly half of the institute’s campus into public land.

Talking to Indian Cooperative an anguished Director of Vamnicom Sanjib Patjoshi , an IPS officer of 1991 batch wondered how can a government of India’s institute be reduced to such a state.

The root of the problem lies in the buildings which have been constructed behind the Vamnicom. There are nearly 6 towers of 32 stories each. The builder has problem marketing the flats as there is no access road to flats. The one that exists is through the defence establishment and there is no guarantee that it will remain accessible also in future.

Indian Cooperative has learnt that builders colluded with local politicians and prevailed on the Pune Municipal corporation to claim a part of Vamnicom land in the name of widening of the congested road. This way they would be able to have a direct road to the buildings constructed in the vicinity of the Vamnicom.

Indian Cooperative has learnt that the land originally was allotted to a defence personnel who sold it to a builder. Putting all rules on hold it was made free-hold and the building activities ensued thereby threatening the very existence of the premier cooperative management institute.

Sanjeeb has warned of the threat to the unique cooperative teaching institution from the Pune Municipal Corporation’s plan to broaden the road in front of it. The road expansion will cause a considerable shrinkage of the institute’s 15 acre campus and as a consequence of it several important buildings including the administrative block will have to be razed to the ground.

All those associated with the institute including students have come out in opposition to the planned road expansion. If the campus’s size reduces the Vamnicon may risk losing recognition from the All India Council for Technical Education under stipulations as laid down by the regulatory body, affirm sources.

The Vamnicom is a grant -in -aid institution under the control of the Union Ministry of Agriculture. It trains about 500 Indian and foreign students in cooperative management.

Meanwhile, an official from the PMC has said the objection raised by the Vamnicom would be taken into consideration while implementing the road development plan. The institution would not be railroaded into giving up some portions of its campus, he asserted.