No Proposal On GI Tag For Jagannath Rasagola: Minister

Bhubaneswar: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister Prafulla Samal on Friday informed the State Assembly that the Odisha government has no proposal for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Jagannath Rasagola.

“The state government has no proposal on GI tag for Jagannath Rasagola. The Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) on behalf of the state government had filed an application at the GI Registry office in Chennai on February 23, seeking the tag for ‘Odishara Rasagola’ with all relevant documents justifying its origin and uniqueness,” the minister said in a written reply.

He said the state government had received a letter from the office of the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in June, seeking detailed information on 14 questions on this issue within a month. The state government furnished its reply in a letter on August 17.

The state had a dispute with the neighbouring West Bengal over the origin of Rasagola. While the neighbouring government had sought GI status for ‘Banglar Rosogola’ in 2015, which was subsequently awarded in 2017, the Odisha government, which has been claiming the origin of the Rasagola with documentary evidence from ancient literature dating back to the 15th century, had not filed for the GI tag till January this year. However, it swung into action after West Bengal got the GI tag for ‘Banglar Rosogola’.