MINUTES OF ONLINE RTI MEETING ARRANGED BY THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, RELATED TO ELIMINATION OR DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS

It was an occasion today on 10-8-2025 when attended the online meeting of National campaign Committee headed by Former CIC Shri Shailesh Gandhi and convened by Shri Shivanand Diwedi related to the Record Management constitute an important part of any office and it is therefore necessary to retain and properly care for outlive their utility to be destroyed, relieving pressure on costly storage, space which is more urgently required. The term record management is very wide and includes inter alia principles, practices and skill needed for achieving the most effective creation, use, maintenance, retention, protection, preservation and weeding/elimination of record. The main purposes of the record management are (2) To speed up the location of and reference to record as a means of speeding up disposal of business. (2) To effect savings in cost of creating, locating, using,maintaining, retaining, preserving and eliminating record. (3) A scrupulous avoidance of creation of unnecessary record in all offices. It is the foremost duty of all offices and officers to see that only that record is created in the Department as is essential. (4) To retain only the necessary active and required record. (5) Audit of record, creation which requires consistent vigilance on the part of officers to ensure that Reports, Returns, Statements and Registers etc, prepared or maintained in various offices under their control are the minimum required for the efficient functioning of the Department. As for as recording is concerned, it is the process of closing of a file after action on all the issues under consideration thereon has been completed. When no further action is required to be taken on a file the section officer may approve to file being recorded under one of the following classes :-- Class 1 -- to be retain for one year Class 11 -- to be retained for three years. Class 111 -- to be retained for eight years. Class 1V -- to be retained for fifteen years. Class V -- to be retained for permanently. (NOTE) :-- (a) The period prescribed for retention should invariably be taken to run from the date of final order on the file. (b) All important files or notes containing orders for future guidance or established precedents will be retained permanently. (c) Cases in which the conduct of the officers has been noticed and entries made in the character rolls maintained by the Department will be retained so long as the officer affected remains in the service of the Government. The questions and queries noticed by the senior key members and guides present on the occasion replied to the concerned and the meeting was over at about 1.30 pm :-- Er Fateh Chand Guleria, Director, RTI welfare Association registered number HPCD, 3552 Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh phone number 9459334377