Girish Chandra Murmu appointed first Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Malik sent to Goa

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday appointed Girish Chandra Murmu as the first Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and Radha Krishna Mathur as the first Lt Governor of Ladkah, days before the two regions formally come into existence as union territories.

Satya Pal Malik, the incumbent Governnor of Jammu and Kashmir, has been transferred to Goa.

Murmu is a 1985-batch Gujarat Cadre IAS officer and was appointed as Secretary, Department of Expenditure in March this year.

Mathur is a retired 1977-batch IAS officer of Tripura cadre and retired as Chief Information Commissioner of India (CIC) in November 2018.

Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will formally come into existence as union territories on October 31.

The parliament had passed a bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir in August and adopted a resloution to repeal Article 370.