LUCKNOW: Two-week-long stalemate ended when Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Tuesday accorded clearance to the fresh proposal pertaining to sub-leasing of land to Patanjali Ayurveda Limited for setting up Rs 6000-crore mega food park in Greater Noida.
The project was caught in a quagmire around a fortnight ago when Patanjali MD Acharaya Balkirshna on June 5 took to twitter to announce that the company would pull out of UP owing to the non-cooperation and indifferent attitude of the state government in giving required clearances to PAL for the mega project.
This led the CM to pitch in and talking to both Baba ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna personally reassuring them of all clearing the road blocks through speedy disposal of their files. The fresh proposal on land sub-leasing was expected in the last cabinet meeting of Yogi Adityanath government as the Centre had given June 15 as deadline to Patanjali Ayurved Ltd for submitting title of land in Greater Noida for a mega food park.
Since the documentation could not be completed within stipulated time given to PAL by the UP CM, the UP government wrote to the union food processing ministry, requesting it to extend the deadline for the Ayurveda giant till June 30, so that the modalities for land transfer could be completed.
Subsequently, the Centre granted two-week extension to Patanjali for completing all the formalities for the project. Notably, Patanjali had written to the UP government asking for benefits under the state's infrastructure and industrial development policy of 2012 to be extended to not just its parent company Patanjali Ayurved Ltd but also to its subsidiary Patanjali Food and Herbal Park Noida Pvt Ltd.
Initially, the land -- 455acre-- allotted by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) in 2016 for the food park project was under the name of Patanjali Ayurveda Limited. Later the company wanted a portion of it to be sub-leased to Patanjali Foods and Herbal Private Limited, a PAL subsidiary and the actual promoter of the food park as the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Developmhority (YEIDA) had said it could not provide benefits under the central government's food park scheme because the allotment of this land was not as per the terms and conditions of the scheme.
On the other, as per the benefits to be given under 2012 industrial police of UP, state government had given a waiver of 25 per cent on stamp duty to the company. But as the company wanted to get a portion of land sub leased to Patanjali Food and Herbal Private Limited, the transfer of the desired land required state cabinet's fresh approval. Proposed food park, biggest ever, spread across 455 acres, would come up at the cost of Rs 6,000 crore. Of 455 acre, 430 acres of land was allotted for industrial use and 25 acres for institutional use to Patanjali Ayurveda Limited.
PAL had planned a university and research centre in 25-acre piece. The company claimed that the mega food project in greater Noida would not only give jobs to over 10,000 people catering to over 50, 000 families, it would also help the UP farmers in doubling their income. Moreover, it would manufacture goods worth Rs 25,000 crore annually.