J-K Governor Satya Pal Malik Transferred, Girish Chandra Murmu Made Lieutenant Governor

IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu has been appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, replacing Satya Pal Malik, who has been given the charge of Goa Governor on Friday. Besides Murmu, PS Sreedharan Pillai, Kerala BJP president, has been appointed as the new Governor of Mizoram, while RK Mathur has been appointed the new Lieutenant Governor Ladakh, 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). Murmu was set to retire from service in November this year. 

He 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 Union Territory.

The incumbent governor of the state, Satya Pal Malik, has been moved to Goa, a Rashtrapati Bhawan statement said. Malik was first appointed governor of Bihar in September 2017 and later shifted to Jammu and Kashmir last year in August. He succeeds 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.

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.