Girish Chandra Murmu on Thursday, 6 August was appointed as the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG), a notification by the Ministry of Finance said. He had stepped down as the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
Murmu had been appointed as the first LG of the newly-formed Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir last year.
Manoj Sinha is now the new LG of J&K, after President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Murmu on Wednesday.
Murmu’s resignation came exactly a year after Article 370 was abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sinha's appointment is being seen as an attempt by the BJP to give a political touch to the J&K administration, which Murmu, a bureaucrat, could not bring to the table.
Before being appointed as the LG of J&K on 31 October, Murmu had worked closely with Modi as principal secretary when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat — and with Home Minister Amit Shah when Murmu was additional home secretary, and Shah the home minister.
He was instrumental in handling sensitive cases and controversies, such as those involving the 2002 Gujarat riots.
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