Sanjay Bhattacharya, deputy controller of patents and designs in Kolkata, said it had been settled under the GI Act, which authenticates a product with respect to its geographical location or community.
After about two-and-a-half years, West Bengal finally won the tug of war with Odisha over Geographical Indications (GI) registration regarding the origin of rosogolla. On Tuesday, Chennal-based GI Registry declared that rosogolla originated in West Bengal, and not Odisha.
Sanjay Bhattacharya, deputy controller of patents and designs in Kolkata, said it had been settled under the GI Act, which authenticates a product with respect to its geographical location or community.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee who is London, tweeted about it. "Sweet news for us all. We are very happy and proud that #Bengal has been granted GI (Geographical Indication) status for rosogolla," her tweet read. State education minister Partha Chatterjee said it was an unnecessary fight Odisha had got into.
State food processing minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, who had earlier said that Odisha would not allowed to claim credit for rosogolla which was Bengal's signature sweet and that he would fight it to the finish, said the news had brought a lot of relief. "We had fought to get a GI registration for Joynagar's Moa earlier."
The patent name, which Bengal had got, is Bangla Rosogolla.
The matter began in 2015, when Odisha's science and technology minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi told the media that they had formed a committee to trace the origin of the sweet, which he claimed originated in Odisha about 600 years ago.
To counter that, West Bengal government produced documents, claiming that the sweet was invented by sweetmeat maker Nabin Chandra Das in 1868. Three committees were formed by the GI Registry probing the matter, before the final verdict was given on Tuesday.
Janata Dal MLA from Puri, Maheswar Mohanty said that they would go through the GI order. "A meeting to decide our next course of action would be convened and we may move court against the order," he told the media.
The news has naturally sent across a wave of celebration in Kolkata. Dhiman Das, director of KC Das Private Ltd and a great great grandson of Nabin Chandra Das, said: "We are thankful to Mamata Banerjee who took a proactive role to get the matter sorted. Officials had asked for all related documents from us to establish the fact that Nabin Chandra Das was the inventor of rosogolla."
Sweetmeat sellers at Bagbazar in Kolkata took out rallies with pots of rosogolla in hand to celebrate the occasion.
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