Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Manoj Sinha, who was appointed as new Lieutenant Governor of J&K this morning, arrived in Srinagar this evening and will be administered the oath of office at Rajbhawan here tomorrow morning, official sources said.
They said that Sinha arrived in Srinagar at 5 PM. “He will be administered oath as the new LG of J&K tomorrow morning at Rajbhawan Srinagar,” they said, adding that the timing of the oath ceremony has not been decided yet.
Sinha’s appointment as the new J&K LG took place on the first anniversary of the Centre’s move to scrap special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two UTs— Ladakh and J&K.
Sinha (61) has been a Lok Sabha MP and a member of the BJP’s top leadership panel, the National Council. He was the Minister of State for Railways and Telecom in the first term of the Modi Government.
Exactly one year after J&K’s special status was scrapped, Sinha’s appointment is seen as an attempt to revive the political process in the UT. On the first anniversary of Article 370 rollback, Kashmir witnessed a complete shutdown and the BJP units at district headquarters celebrated the day by unfurling the tricolor. The UT administration had imposed strict curbs to avoid any untoward incident on the occasion.
Sinha will succeed Girish Chandra Murmu, who resigned abruptly last night. Murmu was appointed in October last year. A 1985-batch Gujarat cadre officer, Murmu worked with PM Modi when he was Gujarat Chief Minister.
After Modi became the Prime Minister, the officer joined the Union Finance Ministry. He became Joint Secretary in the expenditure department. The senior bureaucrat was expected to retire on November 30 last year. Sources said that Murmu is now the frontrunner for the post of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as the post is expected to fall vacant this week when Rajiv Mehrishi completes his term this week on 7 August.
-ARK
