TTD chairman refutes allegations of ‘favouritism’ in ghee procurement

Tirupati: Amid the ongoing political slugfest between ruling TDP and opposition YSRCP over ghee supply contracts, TTD chairman BR Naidu clarified that Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) remains Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams' largest ghee supplier, meeting 62% of the trust's total requirement. Dismissing YSRCP's allegations that Maharashtra-based Indapur Dairy secured ghee contracts after TDP came to power, the TTD chairman released ghee procurement data between 2024 and 2025 to substantiate his claims. He said following complaints and concerns expressed devotees of Lord Venkateswara across the globe over the deteriorating quality of the sacred laddu prasadam due to the procurement of adulterated ghee during the YSRCP regime, the newly-constituted TTD trust board passed a series of resolutions to procure quality cow ghee from reputed dairies across the country in a transparent manner by adopting FSSAI specifications stringently."After the revised ghee procurement guidelines came into effect, seven rounds of tenders were called for ghee procurement, and seven reputed national dairies, including KMF, Mother Dairy, Indapur Dairy, Sangam Dairy, Premier Agri Foods, Kolhapur Dairy, and Govind Milk took part in the tender process. KMF bagged four out of the seven tenders and supplied 60 lakh kgs of ghee, accounting for 62% of the total ghee procured by TTD between 2024 and 2025. Indapur Dairy only qualified in two of the seven tenders and qualified to supply 10 lakh kgs of ghee," he said.BR Naidu further dismissed allegations that Indapur Dairy took part in TTD ghee supply tenders only during the TDP regime, adding that it took part in the ghee tender process about six times between 2019 and 2024 during the YSRCP regime as well. On allegations of spike in the prices of ghee procured by the temple trust, he underlined that ghee prices fluctuate based on a number of parameters, adding that the prices at which the TTD procured ghee from the national dairies were in sync with the suggestive prices of National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India and the Indian Dairy Association (IDA).