Against the Uttarakhand Tourism Department’s decision to lease George Everest Park’s property worth trillions of rupees in Mussoorie to Acharya Balkrishna, Baba Ramdev’s business partner, for fifteen years at a mere rate of one crore rupees per year and to extend it for another fifteen years, the State Congress, on the call of State Congress President Karan Mahara, protested at district headquarters across the state as per the pre-announced program and burnt the effigy of the State Government and declared that the Congress’ agitation will continue till the announcement of a high-level investigation into this entire scam.
In the capital Dehradun, under the joint leadership of State Congress Committee Senior Vice President Organization Suryakant Dhasmana and Metropolitan President Dr. Jaswinder Singh Gogi, the Congressmen gathered at the Congress Headquarters first raised slogans against the Central Government, State Government and Tourism Minister and then burnt the effigy of the State Government at Quality Chowk in Rajpur Road in the form of a procession. On this occasion, State Congress Vice President Dhasmana accused the state government of being neck deep in corruption and said that this government, which has been committing one scam after another in the last eight and a half years, has now broken all the records of corruption of the last twenty-five years since the formation of the state with the George Everest Park allocation scam. Mr. Dhasmana said that this scam is worth thirty thousand crores to fifty thousand crores and only an investigation will reveal at whose behest it happened and who all are involved in it, therefore a high-level investigation should be conducted under the supervision of a setting judge of the High Court.
Speaking on this episode, Mr. Dhasmana said that
*Ramdev’s associate Balkrishna gets tourism project**
In fact, Prakriti Organics and Bharuvagro Agri Science—both these companies, which had bid with Rajas Aerosports—bought 17.43% and 33.25% stake respectively in it in October 2023. Separately, four companies—Bharuva Agro Solution, Bharuva Solutions, Fit India Organic and Patanjali Revolution—all linked to Balkrishna, took shares in Rajas Aerosports and Adventures.
The bid document clearly stated:
*”We hereby certify and confirm that we have not had any direct or indirect contact with any other bidder or any person associated with it in the preparation and submission of this tender.”*
Yet the tender instructions contained provisions for disqualification and termination if there was a breach of contract terms or fraud.
Mr Dhasmana said that
George Everest Estate Park, established by Sir George Everest in 1832, was handed over to Rajas Aerosports by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) in 2021 on a pilot basis for one year to check the feasibility. But in December 2022, the department proposed to extend the services on a 15-year lease with an option to extend it by another 15 years.
Mr Dhasmana said that after this
Secretary Sachin Kurve and his predecessors looked after the project. RFP (Request for Proposal) was issued in February 2023 and bidding took place in February 2023. There was an annual fee in it—Rajas Aerosports was willing to pay ₹1 crore, Bharuva Agro Science ₹65.68 lakh and Prakriti Organics ₹1.05 crore.
Finally, the highest bidder got the project, which was to be increased by 10% every year over three years.
Mr Dhasmana said that it is a matter of investigation that
Share in the tender
…………………….
Rajas Aerosports was set up in 2013. The objective of the company was to run adventure activities, such as hot air ballooning, paramotoring, skydiving etc.
The directors included Saurabh Saini and Manish Saini of Haridwar-based company Shri Balaji Adventures.
He said that Balakrishna and the companies associated with him later became shareholders in this company. Documents show that till March 2024, Rajas Aerosports had six shareholders. Mr. Dhasmana said that in September 2023, Patanjali Revolution, Bharuva Agro Solution, Bharuva Agri Science and Fit India Organics were added to the register of companies.
Mr. Dhasmana said that the biggest scam in this entire bidding episode is that neither a global tender was made for such a big work nor was it published in the reputed newspapers of the country and nor were the terms of the tender followed. Mr. Dhasmana said that the three companies of the same person colluded with each other and in collusion with the government committed this mega scam.
Mr. Dhasmana said that now the Congress will fight a decisive battle against this scam as well as the corruption taking place in the state.
On this occasion, Metropolitan Congress President Dr. Jaswinder Singh Gogi said that after paper leaks, recruitment scam, corruption in mining and liquor, now this mega scam has proved that the state government is neck deep in corruption. He said that the Congress party is committed to liberate the people of the state from this corrupt government and now Congress workers have come out on the streets to fight this corrupt government till the end.
In today’s demonstration and effigy burning program, mainly State Labor Cell President Dinesh Kaushal, State General Secretary Jagdish Dhiman, State General Secretary Manish Nagpal, Alok Mehta, Vipul Nautiyal, Amar Mehta, Colonel Ram Ratan Negi, Captain Suban Singh Sajwan, Shri Gopal Singh Gadiya, Virendra Pawar, Mukesh Sonkar, Manish Garg, Amar Mehta, Gaurav Sharma, Nitish Rajoria, Qamar Siddiqui, Jagdish Dhiman, Arjun Sharma, Puneet Chaudhary, Lalit
