According to Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) Chairman Bheema Naik, the famous laddus that served as “prasad” at the revered Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Andhra Pradesh are no longer made with “Nandini” brand ghee. According to him, KMF, whose goods are sold under the Nandini brand and are renowned for their high quality, is unable to make price concessions and, as a result, did not take part in the tendering process as required by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the trust that oversees the temple.
Since KMF has been providing ghee to TTD for some time, the trust has reportedly stated numerous times that KMF ghee improves the flavour of the laddus.
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On Sunday, when Naik spoke to the media about the increase in the cost of Nandini milk, he brought up the TTD problem. On July 27, the Karnataka cabinet approved KMF’s request to increase the selling price of its Nandini milk by Rs three per litre. Beginning August 1, the revised prices will be in effect. Mr Naik said, “For many years, KMF ghee was used for Tirupati Laddu. I’m of the belief that no other ghee can stand up to the quality of Nandini ghee; our customers have given us this 100 per cent certification.”
Speaking to reporters here, he said, “About one year ago they (TTD) called for a tender and asked us to participate in the tender. We cannot give ghee at the competitive rate, because in the e-procurement tender, whoever quotes the lowest rate will get it.” “But our rate is fixed. We said we will supply ghee at our rate, but they (TTD) said they won’t give that amount. So we are not supplying,” he added.
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Noting that the current supplier is supplying ghee to TTD at a meagre rate compared to KMF, Naik said, “It may be of the lesser quality compared to ours, but they too might have done testing as they too have labs.”
He claimed that TTD and the local administration there made a choice. Stating a lot of demand for KMF ghee, Naik said that out of the total, KMF can cater to only 60 per cent of the demand and cannot fulfil the rest 40 per cent.
BJP Hits Out:
Senior BJP leader C T Ravi hit out at the Congress government in the state on the issue.
“Congress shamelessly politicised Nandini issue during the assembly elections and milked it to malign Amul. After coming to power, the CONgress government increased the milk price, making it impossible for Nandini to supply its ghee to the TTD board at the earlier price. Thanks to the incompetent CONgress government, Nandini will no longer supply ghee to prepare the famous Tirupati Laddus. It is very evident that CONgress is hell bent on destroying Suvarna Karnataka to pursue its agenda,” he tweeted.
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Mr Naik, who is from Congress, clarified that the supply of ghee to TTD has been stopped for more than a year now and is not a recent occurrence.
