Following Yogi’s intervention Patanjali food park to stay in UP

Shahira Naim

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Tribune News Service

Lucknow, June 6

Personally intervening to prevent the Rs 6,000 crore Patanjali food park from moving out of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath has assured its MD that all technicalities would be cleared in a week.

Speaking to reporters, cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma admitted that CM Yogi had allayed the doubts of Patanjali Ayurved Limited Managing Director Balkishna by speaking to him over the phone and assuring him that all hurdles would be sorted out and the matter presented before the next cabinet meeting for approval.

Yogi reportedly also spoke to Ramdev promising that officials were getting all the paperwork ready so that the project is submitted for cabinet approval tentatively scheduled for June 12.

Balkishna’s tweet threatening to pull out of UP due to the state government’s apathy had caused major embarrassment to the state government which is still praising itself for holding a successful investment summit.

According to sources, in 2016 the then Akhilesh Yadav government had given 455 acres of land to Patanjali Ayurved Limited on the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) to develop a Rs 6,000 crore food and herbal park promising employment to thousands of youth and a guaranteed income to farmers of the state.

Later, the company had also approached the central government for a mega food park entitling it to a subsidy of Rs 150 crore.

The central government proposal expected the project to come up on a separate 50-acre plot.

According to officials, as the previous sanction of 455 acres of land had been made by the UP cabinet the bifurcation also required a cabinet approval which has been delayed leading to Balkrishna threatening to pull out.

Balkrishna’s tweet caused panic in the political and administrative circles of UP. “Today I was informed that the central government-sanctioned mega food park has been cancelled...in the holy land of Ram and Krishna, the scheme to bring prosperity to the lives of farmers is incomplete due to the apathy of the state government,” he had said.