WB Govt declassifies state cabinet papers from 1938 till 1947, makes them

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said her government has declassified 401 Cabinet files from 1938-47 of the pre-independence era.

“From 1938 to 1947, it is a very important period of Indian history and these files provide a lot of information about the cabinet decisions taken at the period including historic events like the Quit India Movement”, said Banerjee at the state secretariat.

The files will be available to general society at the state chronicles, state library and the Calcutta Information Center.

“Digitisation of files is one such step taken by us towards Digital India program”, said Banerjee. You need to maintain transparency by making documents public which we are doing. That is why we declassified files.

While BJP leaders viewed the declassification as a move to gain political mileage, they admitted that it has mounted pressure to declassify the 135 files on Netaji in possession of the Centre.

Mamata will be travelling to Delhi today to handover these cabinet papers and is later scheduled to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. However, Kolkata Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha said all files related to Netaji had been released and nothing was kept on hold.

“Retired Supreme Court Justice Ashok Ganguly, who has also supported our cause, would also attend”, Bose said, adding, their delegation would have around 50 people.