Govt directs employees to avoid contacts with foreigners

Government has directed its employees to avoid maintaining close liaison with foreigners as they could be spies wanting to extract classified information from them.

In a letter to Secretaries of all ministries and departments, the home ministry asked them to sensitise officers and other employees to avoid such contact with foreigners as they could be moles of foreign intelligence agencies working against India's interests.

The home ministry letter mentioned that a few incidents have been detected in the past where government employees shared classified information with foreigners which compromised country's interests, official sources said.

The home ministry also cited the recent incidents where foreign NGOs were found to be funding people for anti-government protests.

In February, the home ministry had referred two cases of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act violation by the NGOs to the CBI and two cases to the Tamil Nadu police.

Bank accounts of these four NGOs had also been frozen after an inquiry conducted by the home ministry reportedly found them diverting funds meant for charity to fuel the protests.

The action came days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that non-governmental organisations have received support from abroad for leading protests against a much-awaited nuclear power plant.