The scarcity of ghee has badly hit the ‘laddu’ production at Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanam here. The temple authorities could not supply sufficient ‘laddus’ to the devotees visiting the temple. Imposing a ration on sale, only two laddus were sold to each devotee.
The mouth-watering, delicious and yummy ‘laddu’ is unlikely to be available “freely” at the Kanaka Durga temple in a day or two if the ghee scarcity is not eased. The ghee stocks will be sufficient till Tuesday.
About 25 cans, each weighing 15 kg, of ghee are available now. The temple sells nearly 25,000 laddus on normal days and it touches 50,000 to 60,000 laddus on Sundays and Fridays.
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The temple requires not less than 500 kg of ghee every day to prepare the laddus. The daily demand touches 600 kg if other prasadams like ‘chakkera pongali’ were also to be considered, sources say.
The temple authorities explain that Vijaya Dairy used to supply the ghee in bulk.
The supply has come down in the recent past. A request was made to step up the supply and it was expected that it would improve by Tuesday. The devasthanam has asked Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to send a tanker of ghee (KMF sells bulk ghee on tanker basis). Tanker ghee would weigh around 15,000 kg, and the KMF was asked to supply in cans. The KMF, however, has not responded saying this has to be approved by the Board.
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Ghee cost
The temple is spending Rs.300 for every kg of ghee at present. The rate could be a little on the higher side as the transportation and other costs would be involved if the ghee was procured from the KMF.
The authorities feel that a tanker of ghee from the KMF would be sufficient for next 20 days. The scarcity of ghee is likely to ease thereafter, they say.