Sudershan Jaspa, the chairman of Lahaul Potato society (LPS) has resigned from his post on Thursday. This society is a society of potato growers, which has been working for the intrest of potato growers in Lahaul and Spiti district for a long time. The society plays a crucial role to provide better prices to the produce of potato growers in the district.

Talking to media persons at Manali yesterday, Sudershan Jaspa said that “LPS was under heavy debt since 2010. Due to that we forced to sell some properties of the society to generate Rs 1 crore amount to repay the loan of National Cooperative Development Corporation.

Jaspa said that “around Rs 4.5 crore amount of LPS is pending with the state government for a long time. During previous BJP regime, when Ram Lal Markanda of BJP was MLA from Lahaul and Spiti and Agriculture Minister of state in HP government, we met him to demand release of said amount. We also met then Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on this issue but no to avail. In the present government in the state, the delegation of LPS management met the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on two occasions on this issue and urged him to release the said amount but he paid no heed toward our demand.”

 “I was informed by the members of society that Lahaul and Spiti MLA Ravi Thakur want my resignation from the post of chairman of LPS, then he will take up the matter with the state government to release the said amount, which is pending with the state government” he remarked.

“On the request of the members of society, I took this decision in the interest of society. I am hopeful that the MLA will help the society management by releasing the said amount from the state government soon, which will play a crucial role to help the society management to deal with the current financial crisis effectively” said Jaspa.

In response to the allegations of Jaspa, MLA Ravi Thakur said that, “I have no role to dethrone the LPS chairman from his post. I received a complaint against the LPS management from the residents of Lahaul that the LPS management did not adopt proper procedure to sold the properties of society. There were complaint that tenders were not invited for it. So, I asked the Registrar of society to conduct an inquiry into this matter. If any anomalies is found in this matter, the authorities concerned was asked to take legal action accordingly against the LPS management. It seems, this might be the reason for his resignation to take political mileage out of it.”

(Over)