No personal enmity with Baba Ramdev: Virbhadra Singh

CHANDIGARH: Justifying the cancellation of land allotted to the trust of Yoga Guru Ramdev in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh by the previous BJP government, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today alleged the land transfer was a "scandal" and that he had no personal enmity against him.

"I have no personal enmity with Ramdev. He is doing a good job as far as Yoga is concerned. But mixing politics is not acceptable. Land transferred to Patanjali Yogapeeth is a scandal by itself," the CM said at a press conference here.

Singh said that land in question belonged to the Patiala Royal family and it was given to a trust for setting up recreation and holiday facility. "This land will now be used for the purpose for it was meant," the Chief Minister said.

He alleged that the last five year rule of the Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP government has "damaged the reputation and prospects of the state. Large scale benami land transactions and other irregularities, including financial, took place during the previous rule."

The Chief Minister alleged that the BJP government "not only misused and mis-utilised the allocations and grants provided by the Central government, but also crossed all limits of corruption. The pace of development had come almost to a grinding halt."

He claimed that with every passing day "new scandals and skeletons of BJP misrule are coming out and it is a challenge for us to investigate these cases to get to the bottom of the scandals."

"Providing clean, effective, accountable and transparent administration to the people of the state is the prime objective of the state government," the Chief Minister said adding the resolve of the government is to make HP a fully developed state during its five year rule.

Virbhadra said, "The biggest challenge before us is to restore the hope and faith of the people in the government, which have been badly shattered by the previous regime."