'IB didn't ask to stop business with Chinese Cos'

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Home Secretary has denied media report which claimed that IB has asked BSNL to refrain giving contract to Chinese companies.

“We don’t trust most of the media reports. It is their perception of things. IB officials never give instructions directly. Every instruction has to go through the Ministry of Home Affairs and we never gave such instructions to stop giving contract to Chinese companies,” said GK Pillai, Union Home Secretary, in an exclusive interaction with CIOL.

He mentioned that there are some instructions applicable for all kind of business, which all the companies should stick to. With respect to telecom, the Home Ministry has asked telecom companies to avoid giving contract to companies from some countries in border area. These instructions are not specific to companies from China.

“There are companies from China being involved in many of infrastructure projects. We do not have any problem with them but it would be safe if companies run by Government of China are not involved into sensitive projects in border areas. Telecom is a sensitive sector so these instructions should be taken care of by the companies. We only want that Chinese companies, especially run by Chinese Government, should not be given telecom contract in border areas,” added Pillai.

Earlier a media report had stated that BSNL would not award contract to Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei as they have links with Government of China.

The issue had popped up after BSNL shortlisted Huawei for its 93 million GSM lines - a project estimated to be of Rs 30000 cores.