Ramdev was allowed to buy 50 acres near Solan in a day by Dhumal govt

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 24

At a time when red tape is entrenched in the Indian system and officers are conditioned to follow it religiously, the previous BJP government in Himachal had permitted the Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust of Ramdev to purchase 50 acres in a day.

The permission to purchase the land for construction of a yog centre and herbal garden at Chauhada village on the Solan-Chail road was granted by the Director (Ayurveda), Principal Secretary (Ayurveda) and the Health Minister on August 26, 2008. Documents accessed by The Tribune reveal that the then CM Prem Kumar Dhumal also approved the project the next day.

The project file instead of being diarised — the normal procedure while dealing with any government file — was dealt directly by the offices of the Director (Ayurveda), Principal Secretary and the minister. “The project fulfils the wishes of the government but the quantum of land being sought by Patanjali Yogpeeth may be reduced,” the then Health Minister Rajiv Bindal had written on the file.

On September 15, 2008, the Director (Ayurveda) informed Ramdev’s Trust that their request for purchase of 50 acres had been accepted. But, the same day he issued another letter asking them to reduce their land requirement to 30 acres. The project ran into rough weather after the Congress came to power in December 2012. 

On February 19, 2013, the Virbhadra Cabinet cancelled the Trust’s 28 acre lease (96.2 bighas) and on February 22, the district administration took possession of the land, shortly before its inauguration. An FIR has been registered.

The Congress government has detected several irregularities in the norms, including change in the project site from Chauhada to Kehlog near Sadhupul despite having government approval for Chauhada. The fact that the site had been changed was never revealed as it would have necessitated fresh government permission. The fact that an old permission was used for a new site can land Ayurveda and Revenue officials into trouble.

Balakrishan, who was holding the General Power of Attorney, further authorised Lalit Mohan to sign the lease deed, which is legally not permissible. Another glaring mistake detected by the Congress is that the Deputy Commissioner (Solan) had signed the file as the “Lessee”, while Lalit Mohan had signed as the “Lesser”, which should have been the other way round.

The Trust, despite obtaining permission for purchasing the land in September 2008, did not move its case forward for over a year and later changed the site to Kehlog. The Dhumal cabinet approved the project on January 8, 2010, on the basis of papers moved by the Solan DC to the Ayurveda Department for Kehlog. The lease was finally registered on February 2, 2010.

The land in Kehlog was given to the Trust for Rs 17 lakh on a 99-year lease at a token annual fee of Re 1. The Congress, then in the Opposition, had claimed that the land was valued at Rs 35.4 crore, but was allotted to Ramdev’s Trust at a throwaway price.

The Trust had criticised the Himachal Government for cancelling the lease.