New Delhi: Even after a thorough search, the
documents pertaining to imposition of Emergency could not be
traced in Prime Minister`s Office records, Lok Sabha was
informed on Wednesday.
In reply to a question on whether the official record
regarding imposition of Emergency in the year 1975 is not
available in the PMO, Minister of State in the Prime
Minister`s Office V Narayanasamy replied, "Yes."
He also replied in affirmative to questions on whether the
correspondence between PMO and other authorities at that time
were also not available.
The minister also said yes to a question on whether
application under the Right to Information Act on the issue
have been received by the PMO.
The minister quoted a February 3 order of the Central
Information Commission which directed the competent
authorities in the PMO to enquire into this matter and to
ensure that these records are retrieved or traced, wherever
they might be, and should be preserved appropriately for
citizens to access.
"Following the observation made by the Central Information
Commissioner, a thorough search was made to retrieve/trace
records of correspondence between the then Prime Minister and
the President of India relating to proclamation of emergency.
However, no such records were found in the PMO," the Minister
said.
The Commission in its order had observed that the records
relating to such an important event in the history of
post-independent India should be clearly preserved for future
and cannot be allowed to get lost in the labyrinth of the
government offices, the minister said.
PTI
