The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the ruling party, claimed on Thursday that ghee used to make Tirupati laddu was made from beef tallow, lard, and fish oil during the term of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh.
This was done a day after Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu hinted at use of animal fat in preparation of the famous Tirumala temple laddu. TDP spokesperson Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy said that a report from Gujarat-based laboratory of livestock legitimized the presence of foreign fats, including beef tallow, pig fat or lard, and fish oil.
The analysis conducted at the NDDB CALF Lab, certified by the Central government had shown the presence of suspected adulterants in the ghee sample. These adulterants included soybean, sunflower, olive, rapeseed, linseed, wheat germ, maize germ, cottonseed, coconut, palm kernel fat, and palm oil.
Sample was received on July 9 at the Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF), National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), with a report date of July 16.
This was in response to the attack of the YSR Congress Party on Chief Minister Naidu after he had claimed that animal fat used to be incorporated into the laddu. While chairing the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which he headed when the YSRCP was in power, the MP, Y. V. Subba Reddy cancelled the accusations filed against Naidu by describing them as "malicious.".
Subba Reddy, who happens to be an uncle of former Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, also countered that Naidu had lowered the sanctity of the Tirumala temple and the faith of millions of Hindus by what he had proclaimed. Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy presented the lab report at a press conference as a response.
He added that quality ghee will cost more than Rs 1,000 per kg. Previously, the government had sanctioned a contract for ghee supply at just Rs 320 per kg with TTD. Such a low price may be because of lousy sourcing or corruption.
A nexus with corruption and allegations raise more unknown consequences in terms of government contracts to do with transparency and accountability as far as the tenders put together for 15,000 kg of ghee go. He pointed out that YSRCP did not set up a dedicated lab for ghee certification that would have cost only Rs 75 lakh.
Earlier, Social Welfare Minister Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy said the whole thing would be probed in detail. She said that the Chief Minister repeated exactly what officials had claimed earlier that ingredients used were of good quality for the laddu, famously known as Tirumala laddu. This popular sweet is supplied as prasadam to the devotees at the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, administered by TTD, an agency appointed by the state government.
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