Girish Chandra Murmu sworn in as first lieutenant governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

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Updated: Jul 17, 2020 18:32 IST

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.

Also Watch l J&K and Ladakh become Union Territories: What it means

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)