Two Information Officers Who Provided Document On Generous Land Deal For Patanjali Transferred

A fortnight after they helped make public the generous land allotment deal to Baba Ramdev's multi-crore venture Patanjali, courtesy an RTI document, two information officers were greeted with a transfer certificate instead of a promotion as one of them had hoped.

Marketing manager of MADC's (Maharashtra Airport Development Company), to which the land  belonged, Atul Thakare who was also the PIO (Public Information Officer) of its Nagpur branch was moved to Mumbai. And marketing manager Sameer Gokhale who was a PIO in Mumbai was transferred to Nagpur, reported The Times of India. 

A report by the newspaper on March 8 of this year questioned the transparency in the Maharashtra government’s decision to award land for a food-park to Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali, who got 230 acres at a 75 percent discount in Nagpur. 

Read Also: Maharashtra Gifts Ramdev Land For Food Park At 75% Discount, Transfers Official Who Questioned It

State CM Devendra Fadnavis is the head of the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC), the board that cleared the allotment. 

The report also mentioned that the price of the rest of the unused land, about 1030 acres, was hiked by 15 percent to compensate for the discount given to Patanjali. IAS officer Bijay Kumar, the principal secretary for financial reforms, who voiced his concern over the way the discounts and the cross-subsidy was calculated, was transferredafter a fortnight.  Thakare and Gokhale who too were transferred were involved in releasing the RTI documents that revealed the land allotment deal.