Kumawat takes over as CFMG and CFSB Chairman

Kohima, June 3 (UNI) In the backdrop of unabated inter-factional clashes in Nagaland, the Centre has appointed M L Kumawat, Special Secretary (Internal Security) of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), as Chairman of the Ceasefire Monitoring Group (CFMG) and Ceasefire Supervisory Board (CFSB).

Official sources said here today that previous Chairman Lt Gr (Retd) R V Kulkarni was relieved on May 31.

Mr Kumawat, who took over charge in New Delhi as the new Chairman of the CFMG on June 1, was yet to arrive in Nagaland.

According to highly placed sources, ''Gen Kulkarni has failed to stop the inter-factional clashes and implement the agreed Ceasefire Ground Rules (CFGR) in the state, for which the MHA has replaced him by Mr Kumawat.'' Sources said, ''The appointment of MHA officer as the Chairman of the CFMG and CFSB is likely to change the entire insurgency scenario and lead towards a peaceful atmosphere in this decades-long insurgency-affected state.'' The CFMG and CFSB had been created by the Union Government to monitor the implementation of the agreed CFGR with the Centre during the ceasefire agreements with the NSCN(IM) in 1997 and with NSCN (K) in 2001.

UNI AS SJC SBC HS1219