Former Himachal Pradeshchief minister P K Dhumal’s son Arun Dhumal today alleged that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his family had rented out their ancestral house “Holley Lodge” to a firm working in Miyar Hydro electric project and had not disclosed the income in their affidavits filed before the Election Commission.
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HPCA said the “land is leased to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and not to Thakur or his family in their individual capacities”. “Congress must look into their acts, they have siphoned off thousands of crore rupees from Commonwealth games fund”, Thkaur said.
“Arun Dhumal was in a state of desperation with disclosure of various anomalies and misdeeds of HPCA by the senior Congress leader Jai Ram Ramesh on Sunday”. Sixteen acres of land in Dharamsala was given to Himachal Pradesh Cricket association to build a stadium and the state government had to get Rs.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman wondered why the Congress was raising the issue now.
The Congress today alleged that former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal of the BJP had misused his office and violated rules to help son Anurag Thakur treat public property as personal.
Taking potshots at the Narendra Modi government, he said: “The BJP and its leaders have become habitual offenders in committing gross constitutional impropriety, misuse of office, conflict of interest and brazen conduct, which is the very anti-thesis of constitutional democracy”.
He said: “Then Thakur wrote to his father for conversion of land use to commercial with permission to construct a revolving restaurant and a club”. The CM, he said, did not even refer the matter to the Cabinet despite the fact that the original lease was granted by the Cabinet. “The land was given to HPCA and not to me personally”.
The HPCA constructed a full-fledged hotel and spa on this land and handed it over to a private company, Aveda, to run it as Aveda Hotel, Dharamshala.
Mr Thakur denied the allegation. “We shall come with the details of this company later”, said Ramesh. “So much so (that) all office-bearers and members of the Himalayan Players Cricket Association and Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association are identical”, Mr Ramesh added. Therefore, the government will bear the loss that will be around Rs.
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Ramesh released documents to claim that Anurag had registered a Section 25 company in Kanpur under the name “Himalayan Players Cricket Association”, which has the same abbreviated form as the state cricket body, which is a society. “The intent to defraud is writ large”, Mr Ramesh said.
