GC Murmu Becomes 1st J&K L-G, Satya Pal Malik Transferred to Goa

Meanwhile, Radha Krishna Mathur has been appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu on Friday, 25 October, got appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of Jammu-Kashmir, with the current governor of J&K state, Satya Pal Malik, being transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa.

Murmu, 59, an IAS officer of 1985 batch, worked as Modi’s additional principal secretary during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister. He was due for retirement on 30 November.

He will be administered oath of office on 31 October 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 Union Territory.

Former defence secretary R K Mathur was appointed the first Lt Governor of strategically located Ladakh.

While Murmu, a 1985-batch Gujarat cadre officer, is serving as the expenditure secretary in the Union Finance Ministry, Mathur, a 1977-batch officer, has served as the defence secretary and is a former chief information commissioner (CIC).

The appointments come months after the government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 and bifurcated it into two Union territories, on 5 August.

With the appointment of Murmu, the tenure of advisors to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor -- K Vijay Kumar, Khursheed Ganai, K Sikandan and K K Sharma -- may come to an end as all of them are seniors in service to the new Lt Governor.

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

BJP's Kerala president P S Sreedharan Pillai has been appointed as the new governor of Mizoram, the Rashtrapati Bhawan statement said. Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi has been holding the additional charge of Mizoram.

The two Union Territories will come into existence on 31 October.

The former interlocutor to Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, has been appointed the administrator of Lakshadweep.

(With inputs from PTI.)