Uttarakhand LoP alleges Rs 30,000-cr land deal in Mussoorie to Ramdev aide Balkrishna

Dehradun: The Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly, Yashpal Arya, has accused the state government of giving 142 acres of land in Mussoorie worth “Rs 30,000 crore” to a firm belonging to yoga guru Ramdev's aide Balkrishna on a nominal annual rent of Rs 1 crore, and demanded a probe into the matter by the CBI or a panel headed by a retired judge.

In a social media post on Friday, Arya also claimed that the land in George Everest Estate, which has been given to Balkrishna's company Rajas Aerosports and Adventure Pvt Ltd on an annual rent of Rs 1 crore for 15 years, was earlier developed by the government by taking a loan of Rs 23 crore from the Asian Development Bank.

“The government first spent Rs 23 crore of the ADB loan on beautifying the land worth billions, and then gave it to a private company for 15 years to earn just Rs 15 crore as rent.

“Only the government and the competent officers of the Uttarakhand tourism department can tell what kind of development model this is,” Arya said.

The Uttarakhand Tourism Board issued a tender for adventure tourism in Mussoorie, in which the company with the winning bid was to get the responsibility of managing the museum, observatory, cafeteria, sports area, parking, etc., on the 142-acre site.

The tender was floated in 2022-23, Arya said.

The Congress leader alleged that while Rajas Aerosports won the tender for a rent of just Rs 1 crore per annum, the companies that came second and third were also owned by Balkrishna.

Arya also alleged all the three companies have the same address and out of the three, only Rajas Aerosports fulfilled all the conditions.

“The other two companies that submitted the tender did not fulfil any of the conditions, but on the day of the tender, the conditions were changed and two ineligible companies were allowed to participate in the bidding process, which was a violation of the Uttarakhand Procurement Rules, as established by the State Finance (Expenditure) Section-7 through an order dated July 2017,” the leader of opposition (LoP) said.

Arya claimed the value of 142 acres or 762 bighas of land, as per the circle rate, is around Rs 2,757 crore, but the actual market value of commercial land is generally four times this and up to 10 times at tourist places, which means the land could be worth up to Rs 30,000 crore.

The Congress leader also claimed that the company occupied 1,000 bighas of land on the spot and closed a more than 200-year-old road leading to the land parcels and houses located along this land, which the local residents are struggling to get opened.

He claimed the company charges Rs 400 for three hours of parking and Rs 200 per person for walking on this road.

While the youth of Uttarakhand are suffering due to unemployment, the government and its officials are distributing land at throwaway prices, he alleged.

Calling it a betrayal of the people and the “biggest scam” in the history of the state, Arya demanded a probe into the matter by the CBI or a committee headed by a retired judge.

Reacting to the allegations, the ruling BJP termed the allotment process for tourism activities in the George Everest Estate legal, and claimed that movement of people around the allotted site continues unhindered.

Calling the allegations a bundle of lies, BJP's state media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said, “Due procedure has been followed in the allocation of land for tourism activities in George Everest Estate.”