Patanjali may rethink UP exit after Yogi’s outreach

A day after Yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Private Ltd threatened to move its multi-crore food park out of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the state government convened a highlevel meeting on Wednesday.

“Under no circumstances will we let Patanjali move its mega project out of the state.

The chief minister, whose government is eyeing big investment in the state after the UP Investors’ Summit, has already spoken to Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna, the company’s MD, and the matter will be sorted out possibly by the next cabinet meeting,” UP’s industrial development minister Satish Mahana said after the meeting. After a Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath issued orders to expedite clearances for the food park, Patanjali spokesperson SK Tijarawala said, “We are reviewing our decision in the light of assurances given by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. We do trust the assurances given by him.”

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) had on November 2, 2016 allotted 455 acres of land to Patanjali Ayurved with then CM Akhilesh Yadav laying the foundation for the Patanjali Food & Herbal Park in Noida.

There was a flurry of activity since Tuesday, when Balkrishna accused the Yogi Adityanath government of ‘non-cooperation’ and threatened to move the project out of the state.

First, Adityanath assured both Ramdev and Balkrishna of cooperation from his government and directed officials to get the project cleared. Interdepartmental consultations followed, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey said.

“Since the matter pertains to transfer of land from one entity to another and there is the issue of sublease from one company to another, there are a few technical steps that need to be cleared... Only the state cabinet is empowered to make changes,” Pandey said.