KMC mulls to implement regulation to allow it to destroy ‘non-essential’ records

Kolkata: In a step towards de-cluttering its archives, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which maintains several important records of value, is now waiting to implement a regulation that will allow it to destroy “non-essential records”.

It is learnt that the civic body has drafted a regulation which is named ‘The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Destruction of Municipal Records), Regulations 2023’. Sources said that detailed discussions were held on the matter by the municipal commissioner, special municipal commissioner, municipal secretary and chief municipal law officer.

Following that, a draft regulation was prepared by the law department, KMC, and with the nod of the mayor early this year, ‘The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Destruction of Municipal Records), Regulations 2023’ was placed before the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department of the state government.

As to what will be included under the ‘non-essential records’, are yet to be known.

A KMC official assured that the destruction of records is an integral part of the Records Management of any organisation and it ensures that institutional records of vital historical, fiscal and legal value are identified and preserved and that non-essential records are discarded in a timely manner according to established guidelines and identified

legislation.

However, some history enthusiasts worry that what is being considered “non-essential records” should be clarified since a record that the civic body may see as non-essential may be of some historical value given that the KMC was started during the British era and hence considered to be in possession of a rich reservoir of data.

“Kolkata has undergone a drastic change over the decades and the KMC has been a witness to it. There may be premises which are still under KMC’s record but have disappeared from the present-day map of the city,” said a history enthusiast.

According to KMC’’s archive, the genesis of the KMC lies in the Calcutta Municipal Consolidation Act of 1876 through which a Corporation was created consisting of 72 Commissioners with a Chairman and vice-chairman.