The Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand, it seems, is in no rush to declare the reports of the sweet and laddoo samples it had collected after the Tirupati Balaji prasad fiasco.

In response to the controversy surrounding the purity of prasads, the Dhami government had in September asked the food safety and drug administration department to collect samples from temples and sweet shops near Hindu shrines to ensure devotees receive unadulterated offerings.

A month on, it now seems to be mere eyewash as nobody in the state is in a hurry to know whether the prasads are pure or not.

The department collected 113 samples on September 15 and sent them to a laboratory at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar. Tajbar Singh, the department’s additional commissioner, said the report would be out soon.

“We are waiting for the report. After studying the report, action would be taken against the manufacturers of impure sweets,” Singh told reporters.

However, a source in the state government claimed that nobody showed interest in bringing out the report.

“There is a shortage of staff in the laboratory and so they are unable to do the laboratory tests of the samples. It takes less than 10 days to test the samples. The reports of several samples are ready at the lab.

“We believe the ruling dispensation doesn’t want to reveal it and take action against the manufacturers because most of them are insiders,” said an officer.

“The biggest fact is that the government is not asking the lab to submit its report and the officers at the lab know why it is happening. This is why they are saying that the report would soon be out,” he added.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, said: “I have been saying since the beginning that such exercises will be fruitless. The best solution is to hand over the temple management to the sadhus.”

State tourism minister Satpal Maharaj said they are committed to providing pure laddoos and other sweets offered in the temples. “We will soon take action against those found manufacturing impure sweets,” he said.