New Delhi: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has started including cities under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in its forecasts, an official confirmed on Thursday.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, IMD's Director-General, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said, "The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been issuing weather bulletin for entire Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh area. We are mentioning Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad in the bulletin as they are the parts of India.”
"We were issuing the weather forecast of the entire Jammu and Kashmir division for a very long time. But the regional center has started referring to these areas for the last 2 days. We are mentioning Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad in the bulletin as they are a part of India," Mohapatra informed.
"The move comes within days of Pakistan's Supreme Court's decision allowing the federal government to hold elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, to which India has strongly opposed. The development of IMD not just reflects the changed status of Ladakh, being a Union Territory, but also a strong underlying message of a position that PoK belongs to India," Mohapatra said.
"The IMD, being the World Meteorological Department nominated Regional Meteorological Centre, provides severe weather warnings to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan since 2016. This forecast has been sent to the respective countries. From the past 2 days, we have started giving the information to our regional forecast for the areas which belong to India," Mohapatra added.
Reportedly, these cities of PoK have now found a place in the overall forecast of the northwest division. The IMD’s northwest division consists of nine sub-divisions: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi-Chandigarh-Haryana, Punjab, east Uttar Pradesh, West Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan, and west Rajasthan.
