In Ayodhya, where Ravi Shankar-Adani’s organization bought land, the village got ‘denotified’ from the army’s buffer zone, questions started arising

After the foundation stone laying of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, there is a race to buy land around the area. A media report said that even before the foundation stone laying of Ramlala’s temple, many VIP personalities of the state and big personalities of the industry and spiritual world have bought a large amount of land around Ayodhya. Apart from the top officials of the state, these also include close aides of Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, Sri-Sri Ravi Shankar and a subsidiary of Adani Group. It is being said that the place where these three have bought land was notified as the army’s buffer zone. Months after this purchase and sale, now the Governor has denotified these areas.

What is the matter

Recently a report of Indian Express was published, in which information obtained from RTI regarding the purchase of land around Ayodhya was published. It was told that HomeQuest Infraspace, a subsidiary of Adani Group, had bought around 1.4 hectares of land in a deserted village named Majha Jamthara, just 5 km from the Ram temple in Ayodhya. This purchase was made in November 2023 from the firm of former BJP MLA CP Shukla. Shukla’s firm had bought this land from a resident of Ayodhya a year ago. Before HomeQuest Infraspace, Sri-Sri Ravishankar’s charitable organization Art of Living also bought 5.31 hectares of land in the same village in February 2022. Four people, including Haryana Yoga Commission Chairman Jaideep Arya and Rakesh Mittal, bought 3.035 hectares of land in Majha Jamthara in July 2023. All four are also associated with Yoga Guru Ramdev’s Bharat Swabhiman Trust.

Now a report in ‘The Print’ has claimed that the areas where these purchases have been made were notified as buffer zones by the Uttar Pradesh government. It was told that these lands are right next to the army land reserved for army field firing and artillery practice. The rule is that anyone can have personal property in the notified land, which they can buy or sell but for this they have to ensure that they will use it in a limited manner so that when the army informs the state government about the field firing practice, then these areas can be vacated. Broadly, these lands should be used for farming.

Important for development

However, these lands of Majha Jamthara have now been denotified. Ayodhya District Magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh has confirmed this decision. The administration says that this particular village is on important land from the development point of view, so it has been decided to denotify it. It was also told that the government is working on a plan to build a temple and museum on this land. Officials say that this decision of denotification has nothing to do with the institutions or individuals who have bought land there. Obviously, the land has been denotified months after this purchase, which has also raised questions.

Power to the Governor

According to the new notification, 5 thousand 419 hectares of land was notified in 14 villages from August 2020 to July 2025. But out of these, only 894.7 hectares of land which comes under Majha Jamthara has been specifically denotified. The right to notify or denotify these lands lies with the Governor, who denotified this area of ​​​​Majha Jamthara village on 30 May 2024.