New Delhi: An Odisha activist’s challenge to the GI tag given to Banglar Rosogolla was ruled as being “abandoned” by the Geographical Indication (GI) Registry Thursday.
The ruling came as Ramesh Chandra Sahoo, who is the head of a Bhubaneswar-based NGO, filed the evidence supporting his challenge 40 days beyond the legal deadline.
The GI Registry, which governs Geographical Indications, had given the GI tag to West Bengal for Banglar Rosogolla in 2017. Two years later, the GI tag was also awarded to the Odisha version of the delicacy — the Odisha Rasagola.
GI is a tag given to differentiate products on the basis of their characteristics and, in this context, the tags recognise the uniqueness in taste and texture of both versions of rasagolas.
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Sahoo had filed his petition challenging Bengal’s GI tag in February 2018, in which he accused the state of falsifying evidence and tampering with data for geographical ownership of the sweet.
He claimed the sweet’s origin lay in Puri’s Jagannath temple, dating back 800 years. However, West Bengal claimed that the sweet was invented in Kolkata by Nobin Chandra Das.
The Chennai-based GI Registry dismissed Sahoo’s application, noting that while Bengal had filed its response on time, Sahoo had delayed the filing of his evidence. The delay was pointed out by the West Bengal government, which had sought the dismissal of Sahoo’s challenge.
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