Uttarakhand govt rolls out the red carpet for Baba Ramdev

The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government in Uttarakhand has laid out a red carpet for Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru, and his Patanjali empire to work in various sectors in the state. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Baba Ramdev, along with his deputy Acharya Balkrishna, held a detailed discussion to this effect, which was termed as a "cooperation" programme between the Uttarakhand government and Patanjali at the Chief Minister's residence here today.

During the interaction, it was decided that the Uttarakhand government and Patanjali will cooperate in five main sectors, such as organic farming, developing Uttarakhand as a herb ‘kingdom”, increasing the commercial consumption of coarse cereals in the state, establishment of Ayush villages in each district and establishment of a huge ‘Gaushala’ (Cow Shed).

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat claimed that all the sectors will prove to be game changers in terms of prosperity of the state. He instructed officers to prepare a solid action plan in all the areas which would be reviewed exactly after one month. On the basis of concrete action plan, necessary arrangements will be made between the state government and Patanjali. He instructed all officers to create a solid road map in this direction.

Baba Ramdev said that Patanjali would be able to pay more than Rs 1000 crore per year to the farmers of Uttarakhand for their products with a buyback system for the state's products. He also promised to establish 13 Ayush villages in all the 13 districts of the state as proposed by the Chief Minister to promote tourism.

It was also decided to establish a ‘Gaushala’ in the state which would breed high milk-yielding cows, each capable of giving 40 to 60 litres of milk every day. Acharya Balkrishna also promised to buy the entire 5000 quintals of wool produced in the state. Uttarakhand Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat and senior state level officers including Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy were present during the interaction.