NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has been transferred. Girish Chandra Murmu, the Union Expenditure Secretary, will take over as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Former Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur will be the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.
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.
Malik was the first career politician to be appointed to the position in India's northernmost state in 51 years. Murmu's appointment marks the return of former bureaucrats tasked with running the show in the Jammu and Kashmir.
While Murmu, a 1985-batch Gujarat cadre officer, is serving as the Expenditure Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry, Radha Krishna Mathur, a 1977-batch officer, has served as the defence secretary and is a former Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).