Deny temporary staff access to secret documents: Centre after leaks

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

espionage and directed ministries to ensure temporary workers do not have access to classified and secret government documents. The government has directed all central ministries and departments to handle classified documents and sensitive files carefully.

It has asked ministries to «strictly adhere to departmental security instructions and provisions of Manual of Office Procedure while handling sensitive documents/ secret information». The ministries have also been asked to take proper permission of department in-charges if offices are kept open beyond work hours or over the weekends.

The rooms should be opened in the morning in the presence of authorised persons and then locked in the evenings in the presence of an officer or section-in-charge. Sections handling sensitive information should not be left unattended during lunch hours, as per the directive.

The advisory follows the arrest of two contractual employees working in the finance ministry — one as a data entry operator and second as a multi-tasking staff — for allegedly leaking sensitive information to foreign countries. The first arrest was made in January by Delhi Police's Crime Branch and the second earlier this month by Ghaziabad Police.