SRINAGAR: Indian authorities have asked the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to vacate the government bungalow in central Delhi where its office is located, UN officials in Srinagar confirmed Tuesday.
Reports from Delhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modis external affairs ministry felt that the UNMOGIP had outlived its use and “violations of LoC by Pakistan continued with impunity.”
The office bill is picked up by the finance wing of External Affairs who has told South block that it was not going to pay anymore for “meaningless friendly gestures.” The United Nations office is a 7000 square feet bungalow in Purana Qila Road. Having got the notice, UNMOGIP is looking for a rented place. Major Tomas Malm in Srinagar’s UNMOGIP base has confirmed that a letter from the Union government was shot to the UNMOGIP office in Delhi.
The authorities in New Delhi have insisted that the Shimla agreement with Pakistan had led to drawing up the Line of Control between two nations and the ceasefire line drawn as a result of the Karachi agreement (1949) had no relevance. “In view of this, the United Nations Security Council resolution which established UNMOGIP to supervise the Karachi agreement ceasefire line has no relevance. UNMOGIP has been told to either operate from Srinagar or hire a private place in Delhi,” reports quoting Indian officials said.
United Nations Military Information Officer confirmed that they have been asked to vacate but no reason has been given. 40 years back, as per a gentlemans agreement between United Nations and India, the bungalow was given rent-free. It was only a stop-gap agreement and United Nations was to find a place for UNMOGIP.
As nobody from the Indian side asked United Nations officials about the gentlemans pact, it continued to stay. After the Modi ministry came in, the budgetary exercises by various ministries were taken. It was then discovered that a bungalow in prime area of Delhi that it owns is occupied by a group from United Nations and has not been paying rent and it never figured in any Indo-Pak talks on border disputes.
UNMOGIP has Pakistan support and it claims that the United Nation officials have free access from their side to the LoC and India is not allowing it on their side. Pakistan even wanted UNMOGIP at the first meeting of DGMO of two countries after the Kargil war.
Ghanian Military officer, Major General Delali Johnson Sakyi was recently appointed as the new Chief Military Observer and head of the United Nations Military Observer Groups in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), Separatist leaders here welcomed his appointment but urged him to be “fair” in reporting violence along the 740 Kilometer long and 34 kilometer wide Line of Control, that divides the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir between Indian and Pakistan. Hurriyet leaders have called upon the UN body to do an honest reportage from Kashmir.
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