Bangladesh National Archive Bill-2021 placed in JS

Bangladesh National Archive Bill-2021 was placed in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) keeping a provision that no record can be destroyed. State Minister for cultural Affairs KM Khalid today placed the bill in the House with Speaker of the JS Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

Piloting the bill, the state minister said the proposed bill will replace the National Archive Ordinance, 1983 in line with a High Court judgment.He also said the proposed law will help restore the national historical documents.

“The provision of destroying any record has been dropped from the proposed law. So, no record stored in the archive can be ruined,” he said, adding that the soft copies of classified documents will have to be stored in Kaliakoir Data Center after a certain period of time.

There will be an advisory council and the director general for the national archives, he said. Earlier, the Cabinet approved in principle the draft of Bangladesh National Archive Bill-2021 during its regular meeting.

The state minister urged the House to send the bill to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for providing reports within a month.