Clarifying on holding office of profit and providing undue favour to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) headed by his son Anurag Thakur, former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Thursday said that he was never the chief patron of State cricket association.
lashing out at Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for making baseless allegations, Dhumal refuted that neither he was the chief patron of cricket association nor did he participate in any of the meetings of HPCA and never provided any undue profit to it while being a Chief Minister of the State. He said that in the month of February, State Vigilance and anti-corruption bureau had sent him a questionnaire of six queries in which one question was the same that when did he remain chief patron of HPCA.
“I had replied to the State Vigilance and anti-corruption bureau in detail that I was never the chief patron of the HPCA,” said Dhumal. He added that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was misleading the people that he was chief patron of HPCA and provided undue profit to the organisation while holding the chief ministerial post.
“Chief Minister is alleging that land worth Rs250 crore was leased out to HPCA at Rs1 is not based on any facts. This property is of State cricket association and is not of any individual or family the way it is being projected in public,” he said.
Dhumal said that Chief Minister had been claiming that this property would not be allowed to be grabbed by him is a laughable comment and meant for misleading people. “Everyone knows how at midnight, orders were issued from Chief Minister office to take over the HPCA property,” he said.
Dhumal said that the land for high-end hotel The Pavilion of HPCA was given at Rs1 lease was factually wrong as State Government was earning revenue of Rs27 lakh annually from the same land leased out to HPCA for the hotel.He said that all these baseless allegations were being levelled for cheap publicity and to score some points during election campaign.“Modi wave is sweeping across the country and the State and BJP will win all the four seats and motive of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to score high on baseless allegations will be exposed,” added Dhumal.