State Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister today lashed out at BJP leader P K Dhumal for making "false and frivolous" allegations against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
In a joint statement issued here today, the Ministers lambasted the former chief minister for "unfounded and unsubstantiated" outburst against Singh and said the "utterances of Dhumal are an attempt to divert attention from the misdeeds committed by him and his son for facilitating the HPCA during his tenure as the Chief Minister of the state".
"Before making allegations against Singh, the BJP leader should explain the public interest behind converting HPCA into a company from a society and raising a parallel association by the name Himalayan Players Cricket Association and registering it at Kanpur," the Ministers said.
Referring to the Himachal Pradesh Sports (Registration, Recognition and Regulation of Associations) Bill, 2015 passed by the Assembly, they said it was aimed at extending support to sports associations and bringing transparency in their functioning, ensuring democratic functioning of the sports associations and make them accountable.
Terming the furore created by BJP leaders on the issue as unfortunate, they said that Dhumal only watched and served the personal interest of his son and observed that HPCA was perhaps the only cricket association in India which was running a five-star hotel.
"It seems that Dhumal was using the entire state BJP and the HPCA to politically establish his son and ...He had been promoting his son by facilitating the HPCA and reaping benefits from it," they said.
Alleging that there was no transparency in functioning of HPCA and more than one body was running with the acronym HPCA and that its address was found to be fictitious, which amounts to fraud and cheating, they asked why Dhumal did not raise voice against this "fraud".
Further, Thakur changed the constitution of the HPCA and added 26 life members with voting rights in the association to keep absolute control over the HPCA, they said.
