Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh are now UTs -Murmu and Mathur are sworn-in as LT governor of Jammu and Kashmir And Ladakh

Girish Chandra Murmu takes oath

HT, 31 October 2019, NEW DELHI: Girish Chandra Murmu took oath as the lieutenant governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday as J-K officially lost its statehood and was spilt into two UTs- Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh at midnight Wednesday.

Murmu was sworn in by chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court Gita Mittal in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar on Thursday.

The warrant of Murmu’s appointment was read out by Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam.

A 1985 batch IAS officer from Gujarat, Murmu served as expenditure secretary at the Centre before being appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

BJP leader Jugal Kishore and Rajya Sabha MP and PDP member Nazir Laway were among the over 250 guests present the function, reports PTI.

The UT of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Puducherry with an elected legislative assembly and a chief minister.

Earlier in the day, RK Mathur was sworn-in as the L-G of Ladakh by the high court chief justice in Leh .

Mathur inspected a guard of honour by the local police after the ceremony.

Addressing media after the oath, the Jammu and Kashmir L-G said that efforts will be made to carry out development work in all areas in the newly-created Union Territory.

“ Development is composite, efforts will be made to carry out development work in all areas. A development package will be made, and education and health will play an important role in it,” said Mathur. (With inputs from agencies)

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 November 30.

R K Mathur appointed the first Lt Governor 

Former defence secretary R K Mathur was appointed the first Lt Governor of strategically located Ladakh. The 65-year-old bureaucrat, belonging to 1977 IAS batch, retired as chief information commissioner last year. He will be administered oath of office on October 31 in Leh.

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

Malik 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 -- came 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 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. 

Radha Krishna Mathur was sworn-in as the lieutenant governor of Ladakh on Thursday morning, hours after Jammu and Kashmir ceased to be a state and was bifurcated into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. 
Mathur, the first L-G of the union territory of Ladakh, was administered the oath of office by Geeta Mittal, the chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir high court , in Leh. The warrant of appointment was read by a senior official at the function after which the oath ceremony took place. 
The L-G inspected a guard of honour of local police after the swearing-in ceremony. An IAS officer of 1977 batch from Tripura, RK Mathur is a post graduate in Industrial Engineering from IIT and retired as defence secretary in 2015, reports news agency PTI. 
He was appointed as Chief Information Commissioner in December the same year. He completed his tenure in November last year after attaining the age of 65 years. In another development, the Centre on Wednesday night appointed Umang Narula as advisor to Mathur and also posted SS Khandare as ‘Head of Police’ in Ladakh. 

The status of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir was changed by the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, introduced by Union home minister Amit Shah in Parliament on August 5 and later passed by both the Houses. Ladakh will be a UT without legislature like Chandigarh. It will have two hill development councils. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir, on the other hand, will have a legislature like Puducherry with an elected legislative assembly and a chief minister. GC Murmu will be the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He, too, will be sworn in by chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir HC  in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan later on Thursday. (With inputs from PTI)