The official circular emphasised that temple staff must ensure that the quality of ‘prasada’ is never compromised.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Friday, September 20 issued an order mandating the use of “Nandini” brand ghee in all 34,000 temples that come under the state’s temple management body. This is in the backdrop of the huge controversy over the alleged use of animal fat in the ghee at the famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh.
Under this new edict, all temples under the jurisdiction of the Karnataka government will have to use only Nandini ghee, produced by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), for temple rituals, including lighting lamps, preparing ‘prasada’, and in the ‘Dasoha Bhavans’, places where devotees are served food.
The official circular emphasised that temple staff must ensure that the quality of ‘prasada’ is never compromised.
“In all the notified temples under the Religious Endowment Department of Karnataka State, it has been directed to use only Nandini Ghee for services, lamps, and preparation of all types of prasada and in Dasoha Bhavan. It has been suggested to maintain the quality in the prasada prepared in the temples,” the circular reads.
The state government has taken this step in the wake of the huge controversy surrounding the alleged use of animal fat in ghee in the preparation of laddoos at the famous Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh which is under the management of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
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The controversy first erupted earlier this week when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that substandard ingredients and animal fat were being used in making the Tirupati laddu, during the previous YSRCP government. “Even Tirumala laddu was made with substandard ingredients, they used animal fat instead of ghee,” Naidu had claimed adding that samples had tested positive for lard and other animal fats.
The Tirupati Laddu prasadam is given at the revered Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, which is run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
The Tirupati temple kitchen produces around 3 lakh laddoos daily which requires enormous quantities of ingredients, including 15,000 kg of ghee, along with other essentials like cashew nuts, raisins, cardamoms, gram flour, and sugar. The bulk of the ghee in question was reportedly sourced from Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district.
