West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that her government has decided to make all files and documents related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose public. The files would be in public domain from Friday onwards, she said holding a press conference at Nabanna today .
The files would be preserved and displayed in Kolkata police Museum from Friday and would be open for people.
“Declassified ‘Netaji Files’ are in police archives and will be made public next Friday,” she told media persons at the state secretariat on Friday, adding that, “We have decided to put in public domain all government files on Netaji that we have.”
Bureaucrats at the prime minister’s office, home ministry and ministry of external affairs have so far stonewalled attempts to access the classified files that can throw light on Netaji’s disappearance.
All 64 secret files those are with West Bengal government would be transferred to the Kolkata Police Archive.
“We want to maintain transparency and accountability. People must know about Netaji. He was a national icon. We know Netaji’s date of birth. We have no idea about his death. People deserve to know about his last days,” Banerjee further added.
Earlier, the first Chief Information Commissioner of the country Wajahat Habibullah had alleged that the records related to Subhas Chandra Bose’s mysterious disappearance are not being disclosed as they might have been lost, eaten up or disintegrated.
He made these remarks on July 31 while making a point on the poor record keeping in the Government during the release of book by Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu, RTI Use and Abuse, which is based on his first year of experience in the Commission during which he has delivered around 3,200 orders.