Declassified files relating to Netaji on Web Portal

The eighth batch of 25 declassified files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were released online on a web portal, the Ministry of Culture announced on Friday.

The present batch of 25 files pertains to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), inclusive years 1951-2006.

"The present release of 25 files will further meet the continued public demand to access these files and this will also facilitate scholars to carry out further research on the doyen of the freedom movement," the ministry said in a statement here.

"It may be recalled that the first lot of 100 files relating to Netaji, after their preliminary conservation treatment and digitisation, were put in the public domain by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January on the occasion of the 119th birth anniversary of Netaji," it added.

Subsequently, 175 files were released in six more batches between March and August this year.

In all, 275 files belonging to the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat have been released in the public domain and can be accessed at www.netajipapers.gov.in.

"These files passed the scrutiny of the specially constituted Committee with experts from the field of Archives to ascertain the physical conditions of the files and carry out necessary repair and conservation wherever needed, through Conservation Unit," the statement said.

--IANS

mg/ask/dg