Hyderabad: A justification for quoting low price, additional security deposit, and an affidavit from the tender party are among the recommendations which an expert panel submitted to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to ensure only top quality, pure cow ghee is supplied for making of the iconic Tirupati laddus.
The significant proposal was made in the wake of allegations that ghee adulterated with animal and vegetable fats was supplied by a Tamil Nadu-based vendor at Rs 320 per kg, “the lowest price among the five suppliers at the time”.
Amid the raging controversy, TTD authorities stated that the price, at which Dindigul based A.R. Dairy was awarded the tender contract in May, when the YSRCP was in power, “was unviable”.
“How can anyone supply pure ghee at Rs 319.80 (per kilo)? You don’t even get palm oil at that price,” Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu remarked in a press conference Sunday.
Constituted by the TTD, which manages the famed Venkateswara temple, in early July, the expert committee has B. Surendra Nath, dairy expert and former principal and scientist, NDRI, Bengaluru, M. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, a dairy expert from Hyderabad, G. Swarnalatha, assistant professor, Telangana Veterinary University and Prof (B) Mahadevan, IIM, Bengaluru as panel members “to study the existing procurement and suggest a system ensuring compliance with standards considering all the practical problems.”
Its recommendations, in-principle approved and some put to application already, are expected to be fully followed once the TTD trust board, to be formed soon, gives its nod.
“We have already begun implementing the suggestions in fresh tenders. We are ensuring that no adulteration or such dosha occurs again on the sacred Tirumala hill. As per our CM directions, the sanctity of Sri Venkateswara laddu prasadam is restored again,” endowments department minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy told ThePrint.
“With our TDP-led government and able officers in place, the grahanam (eclipsed phase) of TTD and temple are over,” he added.
The panel’s main suggestions were made part of a report that TTD executive officer Syamala Rao handed Sunday over to Naidu over the laddu ghee adulteration controversy and quality improvement initiatives taken by TTD recently.
ThePrint has a copy of the report.
“If the tenderer quotes unreasonably low price when compared to the price analysis, additional security deposit shall be payable for the difference between the quoted rate and the rate arrived based on price analysis on the total supply quantity,” the committee says.
Further, the tender party is required to provide “a proper justification for quoting low price along with documentary evidence” in addition to an affidavit that they are “aware of the blacklisting condition for supplying adulterated ghee and penalties and forfeiture of deposits”.
A.R. Dairy, which supplied ghee in June and July, TTD said, is being blacklisted, even as the agency vehemently denied any wrongdoing. Company executives also questioned the NDDB-CALF lab reports which suggested the presence of lard, tallow and fish oil in the samples of ghee collected from four tankers sent by the firm in the first half of July.
An independent body operating under the auspices of the Andhra Pradesh government, TTD is at the centre of a massive row after Naidu last week announced that ghee adulterated with animal fat was used in Tirupati laddu-preparation.
Since then, the CM has been accusing the YSRCP regime of “extreme apachaaram/ apavitram” (violation of the sanctity of the temple).
Nevertheless, the said adulterated ghee, Rao told ThePrint Saturday, was never used in laddu making.
Naidu’s charges are seemingly based on an assumption that substandard or animal fat contaminated ghee could have been supplied earlier too by agencies in the YSRCP years. However, no adulteration tests were done before.
Several issues were identified after the Telugu Desam Party-led alliance came to power in June and sample collection from ghee tankers for tests at external labs, “for the first time ever” were part of the correction process.
On Monday, the TTD, on Naidu’s directions, held an elaborate purification ritual called ‘shanti-homam’, inside the temple, which Rao said was to ward-off ‘doshas’, and to shield devotees from any harm. Rao also appealed to the faithful to recite a ‘Kshama mantra’, seeking forgiveness.
The TTD report to CM expressed concern that some suppliers took advantage of “poor-quality control systems i.e., lack of testing equipment for adulteration and not sending samples for external lab testing”. “They were quoting very low unviable rates between Rs 320 and Rs 411 per kg.”
To check this gap, the panel recommended formation of a sensory panel with a scientific lab to test ghee purity on hedonic scale. “At least seven should be scored against/on a 9-point scale.”
Rao has said that National Dairy Development Board, Anand offered to donate a ghee adulteration testing equipment costing Rs 75 lakh. This could be set up by December or January to “serve as a permanent solution to the problem”.
Ghee to be procured from South only?
For good quality and pure cow ghee, the expert committee proposed procurement “from dairies located within a radius of 800 km from Tirumala, and located in the cow milk shed regions”.
To get a good flavour/aroma, it explains, butter needs to be ripened with a select starter culture followed by boiling it to ghee at 120-degree temperature. “Most of the dairies within 800 km radius from Tirumala are known to boil butter at such temperature due to the regional preference for an intense ghee flavour.”
The TTD has for many years been procuring ghee from dairies located in various parts of the country and from as far as UP’s Hathras.
The committee has also advised inspection of tender qualified dairies to check the technical capability and capacity to produce, supply good quality cow ghee. It proposed an objective scoring model to be followed during the inspections.
Cow ghee suppliers should be regularly monitored through verification of records pertaining to milk procurement, ghee production, and quality reports. Surprise inspections and surveillance audits should be carried out, advised the panel.
Every effort will be made by the TTD through the revised tender document conditions to procure pure cow ghee with good quality and sensory properties so as to make the holy prasadams, especially laddu, with desirable quality, taste and aroma, said the committee suggestion “highlights”.
On Sunday, Naidu alleged that tender conditions were altered (purportedly to qualify some companies) which “compromised the purity of Sri Venkateswara Swamy prasadam with a history of over 300 years.”
“While ghee suppliers were required to have at least three years of operational experience, after Jagan came to power, it was reduced to one year. The obligatory turnover of suppliers was also reduced to Rs 150 crore from the earlier Rs 250 crore,” the CM alleged.
For making the laddus, the TTD procures cow ghee of Agmark special grade through e-Tenders called every six months. The tender specifications being followed were those approved by the TTD board in September 2014 i.e., during the previous Naidu government
The GI tagged laddu derives its divine smell and taste, mainly from pure cow ghee. The daily requirement of ghee, an important ingredient apart from gram flour, sugar, cardamom, cashew, etc, is around 15,000 kg per day. The cost of annual procurement of ghee is about Rs 200 to 250 crore.
Based on numerous complaints from pilgrims on deteriorating quality of laddu in the past few years, TTD officials said, the ghee procurement process and quality issues were reviewed in depth.
After disengaging A.R. Dairy and others, the TTD is currently procuring ghee from Karnataka Milk Federation’s Nandini and Alpha Foods, at Rs 475 per KG, as per the EO in a presser.
“The divinity and purity of Srivari laddu is unblemished now. TTD is committed to protect the holiness of the laddu prasadam to the satisfaction of all devotees,” TTD posted Saturday on social media platform ‘X’, sharing results of purity reports of samples pertaining to A.R. Dairy and present suppliers.
(Edited by Tony Rai)