Jammu and Kashmir: IAS officers Girish Chandra Murmu and R K Mathur have been appointed the new Lt Governors of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh respectively, an official communication said on Friday. 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 changes come more than two months after the government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 and split the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which will come into existence on October 31.
Satya Pal Malik, who was appointed Jammu and Kashmir Governor in August 2018, has been shifted as Governor of Goa.
Murmu, a 1985-batch Gujarat cadre officer who hails from Odisha, is serving as the Expenditure Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry and was principal secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister. Holding a degree in Business Administration from the Birmingham University, Murmu is perceived as one of the most trusted serving bureaucrats in the Union government.
The appointment was made by President Ram Nath Kovind. Jammu and Kashmir will formally come into existence as a Union Territory on 31 October.
The Parliament had passed a bill to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in August and adopted a resolution to repeal Article 370, which granted special status to the state.
