MURMU IS NEW LT. GOVERNOR FOR J&K UT

IN

New Delhi, Oct. 25: Mr Girish Chander Murmu, a senior IAS officer who worked closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat and is currently the Union expenditure secretary, was on Friday appointed the first Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, six days ahead of the state becoming a Union Territory. Former defence secretary R.K. Mathur was appointed the first Lt Governor of Union Territory of Ladakh.

Mr Murmu, 59, an IAS officer of the 1985 batch, was Mr Modi's additional principal secretary during his tenure as Gujarat CM. He was due for retirement on November 30.

Mr Murmu will be administered oath of office on October 31 in Srinagar after which he will be the administrative head of Kashmir and Jammu provinces. The state’s third province, Ladakh, has been carved out as a separate UT. Mr Mathur, 65 will be administered oath of office on October 31 in Leh.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik moves to Goa for the remainder of his tenure. He was first appointed Governor of Bihar in September 2017 and shifted to Jammu and Kashmir in August last year.

Mr Malik succeeds Ms Mridula Sinha, who completed her five-year tenure in August this year but continued to hold the post till October 23.

The two Union territories — Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir — will come into existence on October 31 after the Centre abrogated the special status of the state and bifurcated it into union territories on August 5.

With the appointment of Mr Murmu, the tenure of the J&K Governor’s advisers, Mr K. Vijay Kumar, Mr Khursheed Ganai, Mr K. Sikandan and Mr K.K. Sharma, may come to an end as all of them are senior to Mr Murmu.

In another order, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief and Centre-appointed interlocutor to Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, was appointed administrator to Lakshadweep. An order to this effect was issued by the Union home ministry.