Congress seeks white paper on Himachal Pradesh IPL bill

HP Congress Committee president Kaul Singh Thakur said the Rs 3-crore released just two weeks ahead of the matches was spent to help the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi organise a completely commercial event. Thakur also questioned why a state government helicopter was sent to ferry Modi and his family from Dharamsala to Delhi.

“The government should also release the list of state guests and the number of tourism staff transferred to Dharamsala to attend on certain VIP guests on state expense,” said Thakur,demanding a probe into the alleged ‘benami land deals’ in the state by some of the life-time members of the HPCA.

“When the Congress comes to power,it will thoroughly probe the misutilisation of the Rs 3 crore and other public money for IPL. The big fish behind the benami land deals will be exposed and property purchased illegally vested in the government,” he said.

However,the Himachal Pradesh government claimed the money released by it was fully used for development of Dharamsala,which was venue for the two IPL matches on April 16 and 18.

Of the Rs 3 crore,an official spokesperson said,Rs 1.5 crore was spent on improvement of roads,Rs 50 lakh for drinking water,Rs 25 lakh for strengthening of electricity supply and Rs 75 lakh for the renovation of parks and streetlights.

The government said that it was not the first time that such funds were released for a particular town. “In the past also,project-specific grants were provided to different districts under the Decentralised Sectoral Planning. A budget provision of Rs 36.96 crore under this has been allocated to all districts as per their requirements,” said a statement released by the government.

On the use of helicopter by Modi,Secretary,General Administration Department,Ajay Bhandari said: “IPL officials had requested the government to rent out the official helicopter for some of its officials to fly to Chandigarh on April 19 afternoon. Six officials of the IPL travelled in the helicopter,for which the government is sending a bill at the rate of Rs 1,58,556 per flying hours,in addition to Rs 79,000 per hour retention charges and taxes. This rate is 25 per cent more than the official rate for usage by the government.”

The bill will be sent after the helicopter agency,Simmsann Airways,reports back with flying details. Bhandari said the government was not aware that who were the six persons who travelled in the helicopter. He said the IPL had to approach the government for the helicopter,to catch a connecting flight from Chandigarh,because regular flights from the Gaggal Airport in Kangra were not taking off and landing due to low visibility.

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Rs 3-crore released just two weeks ahead of the matches was spent to help the HPCA and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi organise a completely commercial event. Why was a state government helicopter was sent to ferry Modi and his family from Dharamsala to Delhi?
Kaul Singh Thakur,President,HP Congress Committee
The money was used for development of Dharamsala,venue for the two matches. Rs 1.5 crore was spent on roads,Rs 50 lakh for drinking water,Rs 25 lakh on electricity supply and Rs 75 lakh was spent on renovation of parks and streetlights.
State Spokesperson