Baba Ramdev lobbying to bag Rs 700 crore mid-day meal contract for Patanjali, says report

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev is reportedly lobbying to bag Rs 700 crore mid-day meal contract for Patanjali Ayurved Ltd.

Ramdev and his men are reaching out to influential people in the national capital to get the contract which is currently being managed by 10 entities, reported Firstpost quoting sources.

The contract involves offering Panjiri (a mixture of sugar, ghee and wheat), fruits and milk to at little over 10 crore students in Uttar Pradesh, a report said.

"The group aims to serve healthy food across India, and its venturing into the mid-day meal project is purely a business decision," said SK Tijarawala,  spokesman  for Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Yogpeeth.

However, Tijarawala also said that it was 'baseless' to link the likely contract win by Patanjali to the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh.

Patanjali has been in the headlines after the Delhi HC banned its soap advertisement. Recently, the company was also accused of distributing expired products like juice, milk powders etc to Assam flood victims. Some of the products handed over reportedly had expiry dates of October last year.

In April, the Canteen Stores Department (CSD), the retailing entity selling consumer goods to armed forces, suspended the sale of a batch of Patanjali Ayurveda's amla juice after it "failed" to clear a laboratory test.