After Netaji files, West Bengal govt makes pre-independence cabinet papers public

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Monday made public the cabinet papers for ten years from 1938 to 1947, after declassifying 64 files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose earlier this month. “Today we are doing something unique in the entire history of Independent India. We are putting cabinet papers in the public domain. It was never been done before. While doing this, we kept in mind various laws and rules,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat. [caption id=“attachment_2448512” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo. Image courtesy: PTI[/caption] “This ten-year-period is very important in pre-Independent India during which many important issues were recorded and many important cabinet decisions taken,” she said. Banerjee also released a CD containing information about papers of 401 cabinet meetings during that period, which had witnessed among other events, the Quit India Movement, the Great Bengal Famine and the Partition of Bengal. The state government had declassified 64 Netaji files earlier on September 18. The chief minister said the papers would be available at the state archive, state information centre and state central library for the public, researchers, historians and students. The work on digitisation of the files started in 2013, she said, adding that currently work was on to digitise cabinet papers of the next ten years after 1947. PTI