Despite pleas, staff fails to register sweet with GIR
For sugar patients, dates powder is used instead of sugar or jaggery for making the sweet.
Rajahmundry: Allocation of Geographical Indication status eludes ‘Pootharekulu’, the popular sweet from Athreyapuram in East Godavari, as the authorities fail to initiate steps to register the sweet with Chennai-based Geographical Indication Registry to get exclusive patent right on the sweet to the villagers for a long time.
The sweet is so popular locally that no marriage will be solemnised without serving it in the meal. Parents who visit their childr-en staying abroad either for study or for work take the sweets in bulk to offer to them. Government officials get the sweet prepared specially with dry fruits and other ingredients to offer to their bosses who visit the Godavari districts for inspection to win their favour.
Anyone who visits the village will find the women sitting in front of their houses early in the morning with the hearths burning and mud pot kept in the reverse position as they make wafers with rice flour. Some women prepare all the requisite ingredients to keep in the layers of the wafers. The ingredients include jaggery or sugar powder and dry fruits like cashew nut, badam, pista and ghee to serve as lubricant. They use dry fruit 'Karjuram' powder or at times chilli powder in preparing the delicacy for diabetics and those who are not interested in consuming sugar or jaggery.
The women regret that despite their repeated appeals to the district administration to get the GI tag for their delicacy, there was no response. They said that they submitted even a representation to the district rural development age-ncy authorities to pursue the issue to get such status but in vain.
On the other hand, with Godavari Pushkaralu round the corner, the women are getting ready to prepare the sweet in bulk quantity to supply to the devotees and enhance their earnings. The president of a self help group, Jeevana Jyothi, S. Satyavani said, “As we are not familiar with all the procedure to get GI status to the sweet, we approached the authorities to help us. We are awaiting their response.”
District collector H. Arun Kumar said, “We want to ensure the sweet is prepared in a hygienic condition by complying with all the standard norms. We will pursue the issue to get GI tag to the sweet by taking it up with the concerned authorities.”
( Source : dc )
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