Jagan’s Pressmeet Lacks Clarity

YSRC president and former CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy faulted Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for bringing disrepute to the TTD Board by alleging that sub-standard ingredients were used in the making of the holy Tirupati laddu.

He also questioned about the delay in revealing the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) report to the public. Why did it take two-months time to reach the public? The report was out in July and it was revealed to the public in September, he reminded.

However, Jagan missed on the fact that the report was relating to a single tanker supplied in July this year. This raises question about the quality of the content in the ghee tankers supplied during the YCP rule. Were tests carried out for each tanker which supplied ghee to the TTD during the YCP regime, asked TDP activists and demanded that all the reports should be made public.

Jagan also did not give any clarity on how could ghee be procured for a mere Rs 320 per kg by the TTD while in the open market, it is being sold for Rs 800 a kg. However, AR Dairy Foods has been supplying ghee at Rs 320 per kg as its contract was finalized during the YCP rule.

“We have sent samples for testing and warned the suppliers that they would be blacklisted if they supplied sub-standard ghee,” said TTD EO Syamala Rao.

The TTD EO also pointed out at the low milk fat content in ghee which should range between 95.68% to 104.32% in the purity test. AR Dairy Foods ghee showed only 20.32% fat content, Syamala Rao said.

Jagan also did not mention about why the contract of Karnataka Milk Federation’s Nandini Milk was scrapped.

Jagan Reddy’s government stopped sourcing the Nandini ghee for TTD laddus from KMF nearly after 15 years of association, over high price issue.

KMP president K Bheema Naik said that “discriminatory practices’ kept Nandini ghee out of the renowned Tirumala laddu.

Though Jagan claimed that the TTD recruited CFTRI scientists to its kitchen labs, he could not clearly mention how they helped improve the scrutinize the standard of ingredients.

The former CM also could not answer the queries of the scribes at the press meet. He tried to evade their questions by diverting the topic to ‘failures in Naidu’s rule’ .

Jagan kept reiterating that there is a robust practice in place for the ghee suppliers and that their product would be allowed to enter into the premises only if they produced a certificate from the NABL. Further, the TTD also takes three samples from every tanker, tests them and gives the consent only if the sample report is satisfactory.

“With such strict measures in place, how can sub-standard ingredients make way into the kitchen,” he wondered and alleged that the revelation of the report was only a ploy by Naidu’s government to gain political mileage.

He alleged that Naidu was trying to divert the attention of the public from his government’s failure in fulfilling the Super Six promises by releasing this report on the eve of the 100-days of the NDA regime in the state.