No achievement of Congress in Himachal: BJP MP Anurag Thakur

The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh did not have any development model and was not able to "digest" the good work done by the previous BJP governments, BJP parliamentarian Anurag Thakur said Saturday.

"The Congress can't list out a single achievement in its last 15-month tenure. It is not able to digest the good work done by the BJP governments which made the state famous at the international level," Thakur said at an election rally in this town, part of the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency from where he is re-contesting.

Thakur, also the president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), said the action against the cricket body and political opponents by the Congress was just to malign the reputation and pollute the election atmosphere.

"Action against the HPCA has been the single-point agenda of the government for the last 15 months," he said.

Former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son Thakur were Friday formally charged in a trial court in Dharamsala with alleged wrongdoing in allotment of land to the HPCA for constructing a residential complex for players near its stadium in Dharamsala.

The filing of the charge sheet came after Himachal Pradesh High Court Acting Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir in Shimla dismissed the HPCA's petition seeking quashing of a police complaint against it under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Justifying the need to construct the players' residential complex, Thakur said that when the international stadium was built in Dharamsala, it did not have any residential facility of any international standard.

"It's mandatory to have a five-star hotel in the vicinity of the stadium. Therefore, there was a need to construct this complex."

The disputed land, three km from the stadium, has been used by the HPCA to build a five-star residential complex called The Pavilion, which has 38 rooms, 32 huts and a high-tech gym. The HPCA website calls it the "exotic residential resort".

Thakur, also joint secretary in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said the HPCA was paying Rs.27 lakh per year to the state government as lease money for the land on which the complex was constructed.

"To say that the lease amount is only Re.1 is nothing but a white lie. This lie of the government would be exposed in court," Thakur said.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Thakur said even his family has lost faith in the policies and governance of the Congress.

"In the state too, people have lost faith in the government."

The Congress has won the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat only once in the past 25 years.

The four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls May 7.