'Departments not submitting noncurrent files'
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 05 2011: Offices of various departments under the Manipur government including Secretariat are violating the Manipur Public Records Act 2000 by not submitting their noncurrent files documents and records to the Archives.

The Manipur Public Records Act 2000 was passed to conserve the concurrent records, documents and officials files of the various departments, public sectors undertakings, statutory bodies, corporations, commissions and committees for future use.

Due to the improper implementation of the act in the state, many precious and important documents, records of the state which can be used in the future for the study of the history of the state and for research by scholars are now on the verge of demolition, stated a reliable source from the Manipur State Archives.

According to the Act, all government departments should submit documents which are 25 years old to the archives for conserving and storing them the archives.

Although the archives had already informed the various departments to submit their noncurrent documents to the archives in written, no department of the state government including the secretariat has submitted any.

No public records can be destroyed without proper recording and evaluation under the act.

The record creating agencies which are the departments of the governments should submit their noncurrent documents to the archives within the month of January every year.

The records stored in the archives can be seen by a person with a formal application to the authority of the archives.

However they will not be allowed to cause any destruction of the records.

The current situation of the state will lead to record shortage of the history of the state in the future.

Many noncurrent documents are lying scattered in every department of the state government including the Secretariat.

Many of them are either destroyed or lost due to improper storage, stated the source.

According to the State Archives Report (1993-94), 140 files of Finance Department for the period of 1950 to 1978, 100 files of Forest Department for 1950 to 1976, 160 files of Education Department for 1960 to 1978, 230 files of Law Department for 1960 to 1977, 250 files of Jail Department for 1961 to 1977, 180 files of Agriculture Department for 1960 to 1978, 270 files of Revenue Department for 1950 to 1980 have been collected by the Archives in the year 1993.Moreover the Archives collected many manuscripts from the custody of various individuals.

Moreover the Archives has resolutions of the Manipur State Durbar which was constituted in 1907, minutes of board sittings, documents of political agents, personal letters of kings, proceedings of the North East Frontier of the Government, of Military Department Manipur (1891-92), back issues of Dainik Patrika (1934) and many other historic documents in its custody.

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