MEERUT: Honouring the last wish of former Nasa scientist, Dr Ramesh Chand Tyagi, who died four years ago due to illness at age 87, his family donated his ancestral house to Chaudhary Charan Singh University (known as Meerut University) for educational purposes.
Before passing away, the researcher and physicist had told his niece Shikha Tyagi, a resident of Meerut, that he wished to donate the property. He also assigned her to find an appropriate use for this 100-year-old house, sprawling over 400 sqm at a prime location in Budhana Gate area.
“My uncle had the option of bequeathing the property to his two sons or sell it at a premium, but he chose to donate it. He thought this property should be used for a social cause, preferably educational purposes to shape future generations for a better India,” she said.
He served at IIT Delhi, Defence Academy in Pune and at DRDO in the country,” Shikha Tyagi said. She said, “My uncle worked with Nasa in the 1970s, when the then PM of India, Indira Gandhi – who had laid stress on reverse brain drain — called him back to India to work on a missile mission. He came back and joined DRDO as senior scientist. As the programme failed to take off due to fund issues, Dr Ramesh Chand Tyagi was shunted to the Defence Academy in Pune…,” said Sikha Tyagi.
Prof Beer Pal Singh, director (research & development) at CCSU, told TOI, “I worked a lot with Tyagi Ji. We had planned to transform this house into a research centre and library. We will name this place after the scientist.”
Sikha Tyagi said, “It was his last wish that his only asset, this house, should be used for a social cause, preferably for educational purposes. Finally, we zeroed in on CCSU, completed the legal proceedings and handed over the documents to university vice chancellor Sangeeta Shukla.”
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