The Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray seems to be rolling back most of the decisions taken by the previous administration.
After staying the work on Aarey metro shed and withdrawing cases against the protestors at Nanar chemical refinery in the Konkan region, the next topic, it would seem, is the land use by Baba Ramdev.
Subhash Desai, the Industries and Mining Minster in Uddhav's cabinet has said that the government will review the land use by Ramdev which was offered to the yoga guru by the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.
According to a July 2019 report, Ramdev's Patanjali Group was allotted an unused plot of land in Latur district. The 400-acre land was reserved by former Chief Minister and Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) which didn't materialise.
Former Chief Minister Fadnavis had invited Ramdev to set up a MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) unit in Ausa village of Latur.
"For a MSME project, you can avail 100% waiver of stamp duty followed by relief in electricity duty for a certain period. The electricity charges will also have Re. 1 per unit relaxation along with refund in GST as per the state policy," read the then CM's letter.
Also in 2017, 230 acres of land was allotted to Ramdev’s Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in Nagpur at a throwaway price. The then Congress Mumbai chief Sanjay Nirupam had filed a petition alleging irregularities in the allotment of land to the company. He had alleged that while the current market value of the land is at least Rs 100 crore per acre, Ramdev had received it for a meager price of Rs 25 lakh per acre.
(With inputs from Pramod Chunchuwar)
