E-Paper
Police museum in Kolkata banks on Netaji files to regain glory
Even 70 years after the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Kolkata Police is still banking on the him to regain the lost glory of the Kolkata Police Museum.
Even 70 years after the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Kolkata Police is still banking on the him to regain the lost glory of the Kolkata Police Museum.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee declassified the secret Netaji files on September 18 in front of his family members and media. On Monday, the museum will open its door for public viewing. “We have a meagre footfall of around 20-25 visitors on weekdays and around 40 on the holidays. Most of them are part of conducted tours organised by the West Bengal tourism department,” Rajiv Gangopadhay, assistant commissioner (museum) of Kolkata Police told HT.
“However from Monday, we are expecting a huge number of visitors to flock to the museum to go through the files — compiled by intelligence wings of the Kolkata and state police. We have already started receiving phone calls from people,” Gangopadhay added.
Anticipating an increase in footfall, Kolkata police have also decided to deploy extra men at the museum for crowd control. Moreover, extra traffic sergeants will man the area to ease vehicular congestion of the road in front of the museum and oversee parking facilities.
Although the museum remains closed on Mondays, Kolkata Police headquarters issued a special notice to allow people to go through the secret files from Monday itself — the first working day.
Museum authorities have also stipulated a time limit of 15 minutes for visitors to browse through the computers containing scanned copies of the 12,744 pages of the 64 secret files for the first few days.
