After the revelation of animal fat used in TTD for preparation of Laddu Prasadam creating concerns all over the country, questions are being raised over the quality of ghee being supplies to all temples in Andhra Pradesh for Prasadam preparation, as YS Jaganmohan Reddy government has replaced Cooperative Dairy’s with private companies for supply of ghee.
Ghee for the needs of prominent temples including TTD in the state was procured from local cooperative dairies. Keeping in mind the sanctity of Tirumala and the interests of the farmers, good ghee was procured from the local dairies. For this, the then governments also issued GO 418. It clearly mentions that this process should be carried out through an e-procurement system.
In 2019, the then TDP government issued another circular further strengthening this decision to protect the sanctity of Tirumala. It also clarified that ghee used in famous temples should be purchased from local cooperative dairies. A few months later, the TDP government fell.
After that, the YCP government that came to power brought changes in the ghee procurement system in 2020. The Karnataka Milk Federation has stopped the supply of Nandini brand ghee till then for the needs of the Tirumala temple. Due to this, the sanctity of Tirumala fell into a complete crisis.
It is known that the ghee supplied by one of the five companies selected by the previous Jagan government through the reverse tendering system was found to contain pork, ox fat, fish oils and vegetable oil, and the whole country was upset over it.
For several decades, prominent temple authorities in the state, including the TTD, purchased ghee from the Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union. Then such quality problems and cases of fat mixing never came. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam used to buy ghee from Chittoor Dairy for offering to the Lord.
Chittoor Dairy’s milk and all the products were of the highest quality. Lakhs of tons of ghee were needed for Swami’s services. To that extent the dairy farmers were benefited. There was no need to test the ghee from Chittoor Dairy. However, due to various problems the Chittoor Dairy was closed.
Since then,TTD started collecting ghee from the Nandini brand of Karnataka Milk Federation. At that time Chittoor and Karnataka dairies were at the top in terms of cow ghee production and quality in the entire country.
So after the closure of Chittoor Dairy, TDP officials bought Nandini’s ghee and used it for Swami’s services. Even when buying Nandini ghee, there was no need to test it. But in Jagan’s government, there were atrocities in the tender process for purchase of ghee.