Tirupati/IBNS: The newly-formed Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has asked the non-Hindu staffers to take either voluntary retirement or transfer to any other Andhra Pradesh government department, media reports said.

The TTD is an independent government trust that governs Hindu shrine Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati. 

The TTD took the step to give employment to only Hindus in the temple board and its affiliated institutions.

The TTD Act was amended thrice over the years to allow only Hindus in the temple board.

A 1989 government order had also favoured the appointment of only Hindus to the board.

This comes after the new Telugu Desam Party government alleged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's immediate predecessor Jagan Mohan Reddy and his administration had permitted the use of ghee with animal fat to prepare the laddoos, which are the 'prashad'.

According to a July 17 report from the Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) lab at the center-run National Dairy Development Board in Gujarat, it was found that animal fat was used in ghee, which is one of the ingredients, to make the famous Tirupati laddoos when the YSRCP was in power.

The report stated that the ghee contained traces of fish oil, beef tallow, and lard, the latter of which is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.