How was ghee containing animal fat caught? Tirupati Temple Trust has clarified everything

Tirupati Laddu Row: 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 in Andhra Pradesh. AR Dairy Company used to supply ghee to the temple for preparing laddus. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had made such a claim a day earlier, then it was confirmed in a report on Thursday (September 19).

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam claimed that they 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.

Ghee supply stopped after getting results-TTD

According to TTD, this company had sent four tankers on 6th July and 12th July. Before this, this company had sent 6 tankers from 15th to 6th July. Out of which, one tanker used to supply 15 thousand liters of ghee but due to irregularities in the samples of 2 tankers sent on 6th July and 2 tankers sent on 12th July, they were sent to Gujarat and the rest of the tankers were banned.

Nandini Ghee was not being supplied

However, the cow ghee that is currently being purchased for making laddus in Tirupati temple costs Rs 478 per liter. Which is being given by Karnataka Milk Federation. Actually, in the year 2023, when the government dairy Karnataka Milk Federation refused to supply ghee at the price of Rs 320 and opted out of the tender. After this, 5 private companies were given the contract to supply ghee.

The matter gained momentum after the change of power in Andhra Pradesh

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 and the tender was submitted on 12th March. Along with this, the tender was issued on 8th May and the supply order was given on 15th May. After 20 days, the supply of ghee started. This company supplied a total of 10 tankers of ghee. Out of these, 6 were used. In such a situation, when the power changed in Andhra Pradesh, there was a complaint that the taste and quality of the laddus had decreased.

How was adulterated ghee caught in Tirupati temple?

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam formed an expert committee to look into this matter. During this, the committee was asked to test the ghee of all the 5 suppliers. In which the sample of AR Dairy and Agro Food was found to have internal irregularities. The remaining four tankers were separated and the samples of 2 of these tankers were sent for testing to the lab of National Dairy Development Board of Gujarat on July 6 and the samples of the remaining 2 tankers were sent for testing on July 12. The result that came from there surprised everyone.

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