Dhumal defends decision to give land on lease to Ramdev

Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today defended the decision of the previous BJP government to give land on lease to Yoga guru Ramdev near Sadhupul in Solan district saying there was no violation of any law in the process.
Initiating the debate on budget for 2013-14 presented by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the house on March 14, Dhumal said that the revenue department in violation of section 118 of Tenancy and Land Reforms Act had allowed land on lease to Tibetan refugees for a period of 50 years in the previous tenure of Singh as CM.
Condemning the cancellation of land leased out to Ramdev at Sadhupul at prevailing market price, Dhumal termed it was not in the interest of the state.

"No rule was violated by the previous BJP government in granting lease in favour of Patanjali Yogapeeth and it was in the interest of the farmers as the yoga guru had assured that fifteen types of herbs and shrubs produced by them would be procured for manufacturing medicines and also the entire apple concentrate of HPMC would be purchased by the Yogapeeth.
"The government was free to order any inquiry if any rule or law had been violated," he said.
Dhumal alleged that the actual allocation for various sectors have been reduced in the Rs 21,768 crore budget for 2013-14 which was marginally higher by Rs 1,523 crore (seven per cent) as compare to last year's budget and not sufficient even to neutralise the inflation.

Dhumal claimed the budget was increased by 16.88 per cent from Rs 17,327 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 20,244 crore in 2012-13 and said hike in budget was not sufficient even to give three per cent annual increment to employees and wipe out the impact of inflation which was hovering around ten per cent.

He said that outlay of Rs 4,100 crore for annual plan for 2013-14 was the projected figure given in the budget while the planning was yet to finalise the annual plan.
The government claimed 33 per cent of the budget has been earmarked for the social welfare but it has not been increased if compared to previous year, he said.

The budget lacked proper financial management and the receipts have been projected on higher side as compared to the expenditure, Dhumal said.