Tirupati Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple
Tirupati: Amid a controversy over animal fat in laddus served as prasad at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the body that manages the temple, said on Friday that ghee suppliers to the temple body took advantage of the lack of in-house adulteration testing facility and did not use external facilities. TTD Executive Officer J Shyamal Rao said that laboratory tests had revealed the presence of animal fat in selected samples.
The contractor took advantage of this
On the quality of ghee, the trust’s executive officer said that the quality of ghee has deteriorated drastically. He said that the reason for the lack of quality is the lack of an in-house laboratory, sending samples to outside laboratories for testing and impractical rates. Rao said that the suppliers took advantage of these shortcomings. Let us tell you that TTD manages this popular hill temple, which is visited by lakhs of devotees throughout the year.
After the lab report came, the contractor was blacklisted and fined
J Shyamala Rao said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had already mentioned about receiving complaints about animal fat being used in making laddus. Following this, suppliers were warned of blacklisting for providing poor quality ghee. Later, samples of ghee were sent for testing after four trucks carrying ghee were found to be of poor quality. Rao said laboratory tests revealed that the samples were adulterated with animal fat. He said, “The reports of all four samples gave the same result. So we immediately stopped the supply. Apart from blacklisting the contractor, the process of imposing penalty has also been started. Now the legal process will be initiated.”
The company supplying ghee made this claim
Meanwhile, R Dairy, a company that supplies ghee to the Tirupati Balaji temple in Chennai, said samples of their product were approved by authorities certifying its quality. Spokespersons of the Dindigul-based company told reporters that it was only during June and July that they supplied ghee to the Tirumala Lord Venkateswaraswamy temple. Even when ghee was supplied to the Tirupati temple, it was sent with a duly accredited laboratory report. They said their products are available at all places and their quality can be checked.
input language
Latest India News