By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 25, 2018: Odisha government on Wednesday said it will provide all data relating to the Geographical Indication officials by the first week of August for the GI tag of ‘Odishara Rasagola’.

“We had received a letter from the office of the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks in June seeking detailed information on 14 questions on this issue within a month, ” Odisha Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) minister Prafulla Samal told reporters here.

Samal said “we have decided to submit the compliance report in the first week of August.”

Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said that the state government had already replied to some of the questions and details on the remaining will be provided soon.

The Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) on February 23 last, had filed an application at the GI Registry office in Chennai seeking the tag for ‘Odishara Rasagola’ with all relevant documents justifying its origin and uniqueness, Samal said.

Odisha has dispute West Bengal’s claim over the origin of rasagola which has obtained the GI tag for ‘Banglar Rosogola’ in 2017.

Meanwhile, ‘Rasagola Day’ was observed in different parts of Odisha with people exchanging the popular sweet among themselves.

The day has cultural link with Lord Jagannath as people in large number offer the sweet to the Lord before “Niladri Vije” (return to the temple) marking the end of rath jatra festival.

According to legend Lord Jagannath, before entering into the 12th century shrine after rath jatra, offer rasagola to Goddess Laxmi in order to pacify her. Goddess Laxmi was angry as the Lord did not take her on rath jatra.