2024-09-21 15:27:30
Amravati: Politics has heated up over the claim that fish oil and animal fat oil is used instead of ghee in the Prasadam Laddus of Tirupati temple of Andhra Pradesh. The main reason behind this is the ghee used to make the prasad. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had alleged that during the time of the previous government, fish oil and animal fat were used to make Tirupati Prasad i.e. Laddus. Later this was confirmed in a lab report of Gujarat. After this controversy gained momentum, two dairies have come into the discussion. It has come to light that Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) had issued a tender for the purchase of ghee on 12 March 2024. In which the tender was finalized on 8 May. After which AR Dairy of Tamil Nadu got this order, because this company had quoted the price of pure cow ghee at Rs 319 per kg.
AR Dairy in the dock
The company whose ghee was tested in the Gujarat lab is AR Dairy. TTD says that the supply of ghee was stopped after getting the results. According to TTD, this company had sent four tankers on 6 July and 12 July. Before this, this company had sent 6 tankers from 15 to 6 July. Out of which 15 thousand liters of ghee was supplied in one tanker, but due to irregularities in the samples of 2 tankers sent on 6 July and 2 tankers sent on 12 July, they were sent to Gujarat. The rest of the tankers were banned. TTD told that before this the ghee for the laddus made for Prasad was coming from Karnataka’s dairy brand Nandini.
The supply was changed after 15 years
It is alleged that last year, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government stopped the supply of Nandini ghee for laddus from Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) after almost 15 years due to price related issues. After this, Karnataka Milk Federation did not participate in the tender bidding process as it was not able to provide its ghee at cheaper prices after the increase in milk prices. Last year, the Karnataka Cabinet approved an increase of Rs 3 per liter in the price of Nandini milk. Therefore, the contract was given to the lowest bidder.
KMF had expressed displeasure
Then KMF president Bhima Naik had said that Nandini ghee was not being used in the famous Tirumala laddus due to discrimination. Naik had claimed that the laddus will no longer be the same. Nandini provides the best ghee in the market and undergoes all quality checks. If a brand is supplying ghee at a lower price than Nandini then I think the quality will be compromised.
Facts were distorted…I am writing a letter to the CJI, said Jagan Mohan on the presence of animal fat in Tirupati laddu
then use nandini ghee
The cow ghee that is being purchased for making laddus in Tirupati temple is currently priced at Rs 478 per liter. Which is being supplied by Karnataka Milk Federation. The name of this brand is Nandini. In the year 2023, when the government dairy Karnataka Milk Federation refused to supply ghee at the price of Rs 320. The company was out of the tender. After this, five private companies were given the contract to supply ghee. At that time, the YSR government was also accused of pressuring the temple board to buy ghee from another brand. After the change of power in Andhra, KMF again got the work of supplying ghee. Since then, laddus are being made from Nandini ghee.
Sometimes Dalda, sometimes Tirupati Laddu… why tamper with the faith of Hindus?
Six tankers were used
One of these 5 companies, AR Dairy and Agro Foods, a Tamil Nadu based company, gave a tender to supply ghee at Rs 320 per liter. After which its tender was accepted. The company received the supply order on May 15. The supply of ghee started from June 5. This company supplied a total of 10 tankers of ghee. Out of these, 6 were used. With the change of power in Andhra, the supply of Nandini brand ghee was approved.