Paving the way for investment of Patanjali Ayurved ltd in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Government approved a proposal to include the name of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in the deal allowing the Patanjali group to set up a Food Park in Greater Noida. The proposal was approved by the state cabinet in a meeting held here on Tuesday. State Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana told reporters that the government has included the name of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park along with the Patanjali Ayurvedic ltd, which was the demand of Patanjali Group.
“The only demand of the Patanjali group was to include name of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park as a leasee so that the group can set up a food park of its own. The Union Food Processing department has already cleared this project,” the minister said. He said there was no need for giving additional 95 acre of land for the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park as already Patanjali Ayurved ltd has been allotted 455 acres of land by the Yamuna Expressway Development Authority in 2016. State Industrial Development Authority Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey clarified that already, Patanjali Ayurved ltd was enjoying 20 per cent sub-lease and 25 per cent discount on the total area and this benefit will be extended to the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park too. “It was mandatory to include name of Patanjali Food and Herbal park in that project otherwise it would have been legally untenable to sanction this project,” he said.
Earlier on June 5, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev promoted Patanjali group had decided to say quit and shift its Rs 6000 crore mega food park project out of Uttar Pradesh. The UP government had then sought 15 days time from the Central government to finalise the deal, as per the demand of Baba Ramdev and deputy Bal Krishna to sort out the issue about the Mega Food Park. Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director of Patanjali Ayurved limited had declared through a series of tweets that Patanjali will shift its planned food park from Uttar Pradesh, due to the state government’s disappointing attitude. To salvage the situation, the Chief Minister spoke to Baba Ramdev on Tuesday night and assured all help. He even said that all problems will be sorted out.
The MoU between Patanjali and the state government was inked during the Akhilesh Yadav regime, when the then government gave 455 acre of land in Greater Noida, including 430 acre for industrial use and 25 acres for Institutional use. The Patanjali group had asked that 95 acre of this land be earmarked for Herbal project. As the initial project was cleared through Cabinet, a Cabinet approval was needed.