Cuttack’s Dahibara Aloodum Potential Product For Gl Tagging, Says Odisha MSME Minister

Bhubaneswar: Cuttack’s renowned dish—dahibara aloodum — is a potential product for Geographical Indication (Gl) tagging, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister Gokulananda Mallick told the Odisha Assembly.

He was replying to a question by Barabati-Cuttack MLA Sofia Firdous about government’s plan to promote and preserve the
cultural significance of Cuttack’s renowned dish and pursue a Gl tag for it. She also sought to know the timeline for the submission and processing of the Gl tag application.

The Minister said that the dish can popularised benefitting the people associated with the dish once it gets the GI tag. “The MSME department can facilitate any individual or organisation to apply for GI for a product but cannot apply for Gl tag as there is no provision of government as applicant in The Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999,” he said.

He further informed that the department recently floated an Expression of Interest (Eol) to empanel/hire consultants who will help and facilitate the individual applicants/associations regarding G.I registration process for products of Odisha. “The process of GI tagging for a product depends on the complexity of the application and whether any opposition is filed,” he added.