VIJAYAWADA: Even as the Laddu row continues to take a legal turn, TDP official spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhi Ram claimed that AR Dairy Food Pvt Limited based in Dindigul has no wherewithal to supply the ghee to TTD for six months as per the tender awarded to it.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, he gave a PowerPoint presentation with some key documents related to AR Dairy, he asserted that the company’s ghee storage tank capacity is only six tonnes.
“This was according to the TTD Technical Team Report that was submitted to the authorities on November 8, 2023. With such a shortage of capacity, how can it fill up a 16-tonne capacity lorry for supplying ghee to TTD? The company has a production capacity of only 16.3 kg to 16.9 kg of ghee per month. Such a company was awarded the tender for supplying 1000 tonnes for six months during the YSRC regime,” he claimed.
Asserting that ghee supplied by AR Foods was adulterated, Pattabhi Ram said the company has sent a total of 8 tankers and ghee in four of them were used. “A tanker with ghee leaves the company on June 4, but arrives in Tirupati on June 12. The distance between Dindigul and Tirupati is only 500 km. Why has it taken eight days for the tankers to reach Tirupati? Another tanker which left AR Foods on June 11 arrived in Tirupati on June 20, that is 10 days and another one reached Tirupati in seven days and the fourth one in eight days. The question is where have these tankers gone in between. They must have gone to collect adulterated ghee from other sources, as the tankers were not filled to capacity at AR Dairy,” he said and demanded a stringent probe SC directions.
He took exception to YSRC leaders subverting the explanation of TTD for lack of equipment to conduct fatty acid tests. He stressed the need for SIT to make YSRC hand over the wealth looted by its leaders.
SC to hear pleas on Laddu issue
The Supreme Court on Friday will hear a batch of pleas over the alleged adulteration of ghee used in making of Tirupati Laddus. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested the SC to take up the hearing at 10.30 am on Friday instead of Thursday. The SC bench agreed