TDP blames YSRCP for AR dairy ghee contract

TDP on Thursday released more details supporting its allegation that adulterated ghee was supplied to Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam (TTD) during the YSRC tenure.

TDP pointed fingers at YSRCP and then TTD board for allotting the ghee supply contract to AR Dairy for the supply of 1,000 tonnes of ghee, despite the company having only a 16-tonne capacity.

TDP official spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhiram on Thursday cited the report given by TTD’s technical team that visited AR Dairy Foods Limited at Dindigal on November 8, 2023. The technical team stated that AR Dairy produced only 14.9 tonnes of ghee in bulk during 2022-23. The storage tank of AR Dairy is only six tonnes, but the tankers that supply ghee to TTD have a capacity of 16 tonnes.

Pattabhiram asked YSRCP to explain how a company with a 16-tonne capacity was chosen for the supply of 1,000 tonnes of ghee. He also found fault with the timing of the contract given to AR Foods.

Pattabhiram said that the agreement with AR Dairy was signed on June 11, two days before N Chandrababu Naidu took oath as the chief minister. He also questioned why the ghee tankers took more than eight days to reach Tirumala from Dindigal, which is only 500 km away.

All eight tankers that came from AR Dairy took more than a week to reach Tirumala, suggesting that the tankers went somewhere else to fill the ghee, as AR Dairy does not have the capacity to produce the quantity required to be supplied at its facility, Pattabhiram said.

He said that an SIT investigation will find out where the tankers went and who filled the adulterated ghee in the tankers.