Records of Bose's death do not exist?

The records related to Subhas Chandra Bose's mysterious disappearance are not being disclosed as they might have been lost, eaten up or disintegrated, first Chief Information Commissioner of the country Wajahat Habibullah today said.

He was making a point on the poor record keeping in the Government during the release of book by Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu-- RTI Use and Abuse-- which is based on his first year of experience in the Commission during which he has delivered around 3,200 orders.

"When Prime Minister had gone to Germany, some relatives of Netaji had met him and spoken to him about the records regarding the death of or survival of Netaji and what happened to him in the infamous plane crash in Soviet Union.

"The reason why the papers are not being disclosed, all kinds of arguments are being given, because they are not there. Either they have been eaten up or disintegrated or lost. That is how records of Government of India are being maintained," Habibullah said in the event organised by Centre for Media Studies.

Speaking on the issue, Acharyulu cited a case of a farmer who is trying to get information about his land which was acquired in 1978 without paying any compensation.

"The officers cited a flood in which the files were lost... In Hyderabad it was routine to have fire in Municipal Corporation Office which resulted in files relating to property getting destroyed," he said.

Acharyulu said the poor farmer whose land was taken was not even informed about the size of land that was acquired. "Who will pay the compensation and what happened to it?"
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Supreme Court judge Justice Jasti Chelameswar said when he was advocate general in Andhra Pradesh he was told that even Business rules were considered confidentiality.

Other speakers included RTI activist Subhash Agrawal and RK Jain who highlighted the problems faced by RTI users and how use of RTI has helped in improving governance.