Kolkata :

The Platinum Jubilee Memorial Building coming up on the West Bengal Legislative Assembly premises will be a treasure trove of rare documents, books and historic files. The documents will be accessible to general public.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while laying the foundation of the building, requested assembly speaker Biman Banerjee to keep a separate entrance for common people, students and scholars to access the documents. “We were the first to make public the Netaji files, which were in possession of the Bengal government. We believe in transparency and accountability. There are several rare files from the pre-Independence and post-Independence era in possession of Kolkata Police, state police and the assembly,” said the CM.

She urged the Kolkata Police and the state police to digitize all these rare documents and make them available online. The CM also said that an e-library can be made. “If the MPs want to do some research for preparing a note before addressing Parliament, they get adequate information within a very short time. There should be similar mechanism in the assembly as well,” she said.

The chief minister also asked if the documents and archive material can be translated into English with the help of British Council. “You should also look into possibilities of exchange of documents and other materials with the Parliament of Bangladesh,” she said. The proposal was made since Bangladesh holds a huge number of documents before and after the Partition. “Bengali is the fifth widely spoken language in the world and second in Asia. The e-library will benefit a huge number of students,” she said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News> Politics / TNN / November 30th, 2017