BJYM national president and Hamirpur parliamentarian Anurag Thakur has been elected Vice President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
In a event hosted by ASSOCHAM, where Olympic medalist Abhinav Bindra and Sushil Kumar were also present, Thakur stressed on need for out of the box thinking to promote Olympic spots in the country. He said that abysmally low budget for the sports ministry was the prime reason for the average sports performance at the international level. He suggested increasing the budget of sports ministry and asked MPs for allocating funds from their MPLAD fund.
Thakur also stressed on getting in public private partnership mode for building sporting infrastructure in the country to achieve desired results. He also criticized central government for not spending Rs 50 crore given by the BCCI to the sports ministry for the promotion of other sports.
Thakur, who was Executive Member, India Olympic Association, General Secretary, Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association, General Secretary, Hockey Himachal Pradesh and Joint secretary of BCCI and President Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, has long list of experience as sports administrator. He was cricketer and at the age of 25 he became the youngest President of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association.
Anurag Thakur is credited for promoting Cricket in Himachal Pradesh. During his tenure world class Cricket stadium was built at Dharamshala and even hosted first international ODI and famous cricket league matches there.
