Durga temple laddu doesn’t confirm to FSSAI standards

Laddus, worth lakhs of rupees spoiled in 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016, says V&E report

Lakhs of devotees visit the Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Devastanam, perform puja, offer vows (mokkus) and take prasadams with devotion. But, you might be shocked to know that the temple management is reportedly not maintaining standards in preparing the prasadam.

The contractors and the staff engaged in the potu (prasadam making unit) have been allegedly resorting to high-level corruption and not maintaining quality in making the prasadams.

The temple management sells ‘pulihora’ and ‘laddus’, and distributes ‘pongali’, ‘anna prasadam’, ‘daddojanam’ and other prasadams to the devotees. But, the prasadams being distributed are not of good quality, according to the Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) officials, who conducted raids recently.

Many irregularities

“We found irregularities in allotting tenders for provisions, variations in stock registers, not maintaining any registers in allotment of provisions such as cashew, raisins, ghee, edible oil, almond and other items to the potu daily and poor quality in prasadams,” says Regional Vigilance and Enforcement Officer (RVEO) M. Ravindranath Babu.

“The temple management destroyed 41,978 laddus, worth about ₹4.2 lakh, as worms were found and yeast was formed in them, and ordered for an inquiry in 2016. The Vigilance and Enforcement Department has submitted a report to the government recently”, the RVEO said.

As per our investigation, laddu contractor M. Ramesh supplied 52,000 laddus to the devastanam on October 2, 2016, of which 41,978 stored in the temple’s kalyana mandapam were spoiled the next day. The temple authorities destroyed the laddus on October 5.

“On October 4, 2016, officials of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) collected samples of the spoilt laddus and submitted a report on October 27, stating that the quality of laddu prasadam ‘is not within the limits of FSSAI standards and the laddus contained yeast and moulds”, the RVEO explained.

Blacklisted

As per Vigilance report, temple Executive Officer A. Surya Kumari stated that about ₹4.2 lakh was recovered from the contractor Mr. Ramesh and he was blacklisted from participating in tenders for the next five years.

“During investigation, it was revealed that laddu prasadam was also spoiled in 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016. But, no criminal action was initiated against the contractor or the staff concerned who are monitoring the quality of prasadams. We noticed that poor quality ingredients are being used in preparing prasadams”, Mr. Ravindranath Babu said.