HP Govt restores land to Yoga guru Baba Ramdev in Solan
Shimla: In a significant development, Himachal Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday took a decision to restore 28 acres of prime land near Sadhupul in Solan district to Yoga guru Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust.
The land was initially allotted to the Trust by earlier BJP government led by Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2011-12 but the lease was cancelled by the Congress government in 2013, which also ordered filing of a vigilance case against Yoga guru's close aide Bal Krishan and two others.
As per proposal, Patanjali Trust had proposed to set-up a herbal medicine's farm-cum-Ayurveda medical Research centre.
The Congress government on return to power in 2012-13 under Virbhadra Singh had cancelled the lease granted by the Dhumal government alleging a 'sell-out' of state's interests, and also undue favour shown to Yoga guru for giving land on meagre lease money of Rs 17 lakhs.
The Virbhadra Singh government, however, took a U-turn on its decision in February 2017 to restore the land to the Trust on the condition that a writ petition filed by the Trust should be withdrawn, which the Trust did.
Now, on return to the BJP government and apparently, after a fresh representation of the Trust, the Jai Ram Thakur government decided to return the land to Yoga guru's trust.
The cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister gave its nod to the proposal but decided to charge market value of the land under section 8 (D) of the HP Lease Rules.
The Trust has been told to deposit Rs 2.22 crore as one time concessional lease money (with a discount of 20 percent).
When contacted Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue ) Manisha Nanda said, "The total liability of the Trust is Rs 2.39 crore but since it had already deposited Rs 17 lakhs under earlier decision of the cabinet ,the rest of Rs 1.22 crore will be payable by the Trust".
The government claims that the Trust had already invested Rs 11 crore on the project, which was aimed to set-up a
modern herbal farm-cum-Ayurveda medical research centre, the state government has decided to give a green signal to Patanjali Trust.
