Shimla, Nov 17 (IANS) The Himachal secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) here Sunday asked the government to bring in a legislation to regulate the sports bodies in the state.
“The government should intervene and bring in a law that binds all sports bodies and makes certain essential elements fundamental to the new law,” CPI-M state secretariat member Tikender Panwar said in a statement.
He said the recent experience of the BJP MP Anurag Thakur-led Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), where cricket was utilised to promote business, had thrown open a new debate in the state.
“How is it possible that the sports bodies could run a five-star hotel and make mockery of the law by raising loans on the leased land given to them by the government? The government should not become a meek spectator and should seriously engage with the new situation and bring in the sports act,” Panwar said.
A case of cheating and misappropriation was registered against Thakur in August over alleged wrong-doing in allotment of land, which according to revenue records was a common village land given for constructing a residential complex for the players near its international stadium in Dharamsala.
The land was allotted when the BJP government headed by Prem Kumar Dhumal was in power. Dhumal is Thakur’s father.
The HPCA has been accused of encroaching on 720 sqaure metre land of the state sports and youth services department. The encroached portion is located near the main gate of the Dharamsala stadium.