HP Government not to amend Sports Acts, asserts CM

Shimla, July 28 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has asserted that his government would not amend the Himachal Pradesh Sports (Registration and Regulation of Associations) Act, which asks the sports bodies to clean-up their acts.

''The government was forced to enact the Bill to ensure that the sports bodies functioned as per their constitution and in a transparent manner, besides safeguarding the interests of the sports people,'' he told reporters who called on him here.

Mr Singh said the Bill was enacted to prevent a single family from retaining the control over the HP Cricket Association (HPCA) after changing its Constitution arbitrarily.

The HPCA, headed by Anurag Thakur, had conferred voting rights to patrons and lifetime members, majority of which were from the neighbouring state, he said.

This would have ensured that only people close to that family would have won elections to the HPCA since majority of the people owed allegiance to them, he said.

He said the then chief minister P K Dhumal, who was made the patron-in-chief of the association by his son Anurag, also had a voting right besides several other non Himachali people.

Asserting that he was not against Mr. Thakur being made the HPCA President, he said, whosoever becomes the president, he should be elected through a democratic process.

''Mr Anurag Thakur, the former chief minister's son, is like a son to me, but that does not mean he can get away with anything,'' he said.

Replying to a question whether the government would soften its stand on the issue after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi warned of strict action against those states where the sports act have been enacted, he said the other states should follow HP ''rather than keeping us out from the IOA''.

The Chief Minister said his government was only trying to cleanse the sports bodies of the state by enacting the Bill, which would ensure transparency besides ensuring that players only headed the sports bodies.

The Bill also provides for annual elections to the office bearers of the sports bodies, unlike the Constitution amended by Anurag Thakur wherein elections would only take place for the HPCA president, while the elected President would nominate the other office bearers, he said.

Mr Singh said the Bill provides for no voting rights to patrons and lifetime members, adding that this would ensure that only sports people headed these organizations.

''How can former Punjab DGP KPS Gill be the President of the HP Hockey Federation? He neither belongs to the state nor has he ever done anything to make the sport popular in the state,'' he said.

He also lamented at the lack of coverage to this issue by the media, saying only Mr Thakur's side of the story was doing rounds in the state, while the state government's version on the issue was never sought by anyone.

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