Anurag Thakur appointed Himachal Pradesh Olympic chief

Thakur was elected to the HPOA post in the presence of Nirwan Mukherjee from the Indian Olympic Association and Ratan Lal Thakur, observer of the Himachal Pradesh Government Sports Council, among others.

Virender Kanwar was elected senior vice-president and Rajesh Bhandari, who is vice-president of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), was elected general secretary.

“The newly-elected members deliberated on how to improve the quality of sports in the state which has an immense pool of talent but is not doing well due to the lack of quality infrastructure and a concrete policy for the development of the same,” HPOA said in a media release.

“The house decided to have a blueprint for the same with the help of experts and studying the models followed by other states which would be pursued with the government and other stake holders to be implemented,” PTI news agency reported the release as further stating.

During the meeting, HPOA also decided to have a state Olympic festival on the lines of the National Games at Hamirpur from June 23 to 26.