Demand in Rajya Sabha to declassify Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's records

NEW DELHI: A demand to declassify records relating to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was made in the Rajya Sabha today to "unravel mystery" behind his death nearly seven decades back.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) said BJP before coming to power had demanded that records related to Bose be made public but after forming government, it has refused to declassify the files.

"Nation has the right to know what happened to Netaji," he said, demanding that 39 files be declassified and put up in National Archives.

Several Left and Congress members too associated themselves with the issue.

Bhupinder Singh (BJP) sought subsidy to cotton producers in Odisha who have been severely hit by heavy rainfall in August and cyclone Hudhud in October.

Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) raised the issue of government deciding to phase out the Jute Packaging Material Act that provides for compulsory use of jute in packaging of certain material in two years.

Jute industry is in a crisis, threatening livelihood of several lakh workers, he said.

Successive governments have since 2008 diluted the Act and the final nail in the coffin was driven by the finance ministry's November 11 order for phasing it out in two years, he said.

Jute farmers are being forced to sell jute at Rs 1,600 per quintal as against MSP of Rs 2,400 per quintal, he said adding import of 1.45 lakh tons of jute sacks has added to their misery.

P Bhattacharya (Cong) said this is a conspiracy to finish jute industry.

K C Tyagi (JD-U) raised the issue of quality of food served in leading restaurants like KFC, Sagar Ratna and Bikanerwala in Delhi.

The food, he said, was unfit for human consumption because of use of sub-standard material.