Andhra Forms Panel to Uncover Tirupati Laddu Adulteration Masterminds

Finance Minister Sri Payyavula Keshav told the media that the Cabinet discussed in detail the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the case.

He said a short-term administrative committee will be formed to comprehensively review this matter and identify the masterminds.

He said the government has taken serious note of the adulteration of ghee used for making sacred laddu and strict action will be taken against all the culprits named in the report.

Stating that the Cabinet dedicated three hours to a discuss the ghee adulterated issue, he said protecting the sanctity of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) is the government's duty.

The SIT under the supervision of the CBI conducted the investigation as per the orders of the Supreme Court of India.

He revealed that the state government received two documents from the SIT - the chargesheet already filed in court, and the 11-page confidential report sent specifically to the government. The chargesheet will only be made available to the government and the concerned parties after the court officially takes cognisance of it.

He said according to the report serious irregularities have occurred in the supply of ghee, including relaxation of tender conditions, quality defects, and submission of false documents.

The SIT report stated that unnecessary relaxations in the TTD ghee procurement process after 2019 facilitated the supply of substandard products. The report clarified that actions such as reducing the turnover condition in the tender specifications from Rs. 250 crore to Rs. 150 crore, and granting eligibility even without minimum milk procurement experience, were deliberately taken.

The NDDB-CALF lab report, which examined the ghee samples, revealed the possible presence of several suspected adulterants such as soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, cottonseed, fish oil, beef tallow, and lard. Based on this report, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu mentioned this issue on the public platform.

According to minister, the report revealed that the tender conditions were deliberately relaxed, and the warnings issued by the CFTRI lab in 2022 were ignored, resulting in the supply of approximately 58 lakh liters of adulterated ghee. It was also revealed that some of the companies that participated in the tender had submitted fraudulent documents to qualify.

The report mentioned the names of senior officials such as A.V. Dharmareddy (AEO), Anil Kumar Singhal (former EO), and O. Balaji (F&CAO). The SIT report stated that these officials are responsible for relaxing the tender conditions and failing in quality control.

It was decided in the Cabinet meeting that appropriate legal and administrative action should be taken against the culprits mentioned in the report. It was also decided to implement institutional reforms and strengthen the quality control system to prevent such lapses from recurring in the future.

The minister stated that the government has decided to constitute a short-term administrative committee to comprehensively review this matter, and this committee will complete its investigation within a stipulated timeframe and submit its final report to the government.

Minister for Information, Public Relations and Housing, Kolusu Parthasarathy, stated that the Cabinet set aside all the previously decided agenda items to have detailed discussion on laddu adulteration issue.

He said the Chief Minister placed before the meeting the report submitted by the SIT.

Civil Supplies minister Nadendla Manohar stated that all the ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, explained their views.

He stated that they condemned the attempts to distort the issue from a political angle and decided to place the facts before people.

Advocate General was invited to the meeting to obtain legal advice. The Chief Minister expressed the government's firm resolve to act honestly to ensure that the faith of the devotees is not undermined. He explained that the government is revealing the issues that were neglected during the previous government's tenure and is currently taking transparent measures by conducting multiple lab tests on the quality of the ghee.

This development comes days after the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) demanded that Chief Minister Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan apologise to devotees, after a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation confirmed that no animal fat was used in the sacred Tirupati laddus.

YSRCP official spokesperson Karumuri Venkata Reddy stated that a major conspiracy in the history of Andhra Pradesh has finally been exposed.

"The ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute in Haryana and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Gujarat, after testing the ghee samples used in the preparation of the sacred Tirumala Sri Vari Laddu Prasadam, have conclusively confirmed that no animal fat of any kind was present in the ghee. Chandrababu, who spread false propaganda claiming that animal fat was mixed in the ghee, must now rub his nose on the ground and publicly apologize," he said.

YSRCP leaders pointed out that both Naidu and Pawan Kalyan hurt the religious sentiments of devotees by claiming that the ghee procured by TTD during the YSRCP's rule was adulterated with animal fat.

- IANS