In an apparent attempt to score political points, Congress members rallied in Dehradun against the recent altercation at the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park that had resulted in the death of a local transporter. The party
members submitted a memorandum through the District Magistrate to Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
In the memorandum to the CM, the party members strongly condemned the violent altercation that took place at the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in Haridwar on May 27. They stated, “The security guards of Swami Ramdev shooting a person dead is a serious case. Ramdev bought agricultural lands from local farmers for cheap and in stead of providing work to them in the Patanjali institution, he is getting the work done by outsiders. The local farmers had lost employment after selling their farm lands. Some of the locals had gone peacefully to discuss their demand of providing some goods transportation work to the locals when the violent altercation took place resulting in one death. A major incident could take place in the future if no action is taken now,” said the Congress members.
They further demanded that the family of Daljit Singh, who was killed in the incident, should be provided Rs25 lakh ex gratia by the Patanjali authorities. The investigation of the incident in the food and herbal park should be conducted by a special investigation team, all those living in the food and herbal park should be checked in addition to search for illegal arms. They repeated the demand of Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kishore Upadhyay, for immediate arrest of Ramdev while also seeking provision for 70 per cent job reservation for locals in Patanjali Yogpeeth with the hiring of only local transporters for ferrying goods from the food and herbal park.