Govt files recovered, DM wants dept clarification

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 26 AUG: After the recovery of more than 100 important government files from a house in English Bazaar, the district magistrate, Mr Sridhar Ghosh, now wants clarification of the departmental heads about the incident.

The district magistrate said that he might issue an inquiry order after receiving report from the police.

“After examining the reports from the departmental heads and the police, we will take the next course of action,” Mr Ghosh said. Most of the files belonged from to the office of the District Inspectors of Schools.

Besides, there were many files belong to health department, treasury, sub-divisional office, railways and other important departments.

The officials of the District Inspector of Schools in Malda detected a person, identified as Mr Sajal Sinha, on Monday who was taking away some papers from the office. The education officials, without informing police came to the house of Mr Sinha at Krishnapally to look for the lost files.

When the locals came to know the matter they informed the media.

Finally police got the information when the district inspector of school informed the matter to the SDO. The police raided the house and recovered the hundreds of files collected from different offices. Police sorted out the files till last evening for reporting to the concerned departments.

When the matter came to light, a section of government officials raised allegations of being “careless” and “callous” on the part of the departmental heads who did not inform the police about the missing files. Some departmental heads even did not know about the missing files. Both the police, sub divisional officer, Mr Prakash Pal, identified the man, who used to steal and collect the files, as "mentally challenged".

Police registered a general diary after the recovery of files. “It is a shocking and surprising incident,” said the DM of Malda.