Panaji, Sep 26 (IANS): Minister for Archives and Archaeology Subhash Phal Desai on Tuesday said that though Portuguese committed atrocities on Goans, they did one good thing by preserving documents of it.

Phal Desaialso said that documents related to Goa, during the Portuguese regime in the state, will be sought from Lisbon.

He was speaking during the launch of an online Portuguese translation service in Panaji. He said that this service of online Portuguese documents translation will help whoever wants it for research or property related issues.

“There are 15 empanelled translators. There will be authentication in translation. Historical, property records or any other documents for academic records could be translated,” he said, adding people should come to know about the heritage and history, which lies in these documents.

“Though the Portuguese did atrocities on Goans, they have done one good thing by preserving our documents. They have also mentioned the atrocities in these records. Hence we need to have information about our history and ancestral properties,” Phal Desai said.

“We have over three crore records and those records are to be digitised in a phased manner. If this data is available in a digitised form then anybody can access it. Digitisation will be done on a fast track,” he said.

“Documents in the possession of Lisbon can be acquired if they have digitised it or if in physical form we will see how we can access it and get copies of it to digitise it here,” he said.

In June last year, he had said that many secrets about the Portuguese rule in Goa will tumble out from "important" documents sought by the state government from Lisbon.

He had said that in exchange, the state government was willing to exchange any documents which were sought by the Portuguese.

Phal Desai also said that the state government would approach the Union Ministry of External Affairs to obtain the documents.

"There are very important documents. Many of the secrets about what was happening during the Portuguese era (will be revealed)," Phal Desai said.