New J&K LG to visit Kashmir today, calls role ‘a big responsibility’

Srinagar: Former Union minister Manoj Sinha, who has been appointed as the new Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor, a day after GC Murmu abruptly resigned, will visit Kashmir today, reports said.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique on Thursday morning said the outgoing lieutenant governor’s resignation has been accepted while also announcing Sinha’s name for the position.

Calling the new role as “big responsibility”, Sinha told News18 that he “would be going to Kashmir today.”

Reports say that he was chosen because the Centre wanted a politician rather than a career bureaucrat to create some sort of political process in the erstwhile state.

Reacting to the development, former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Last night there were one or two names that people were circulating as a done deal and this name wasn’t among them. You can always trust this government to pull an unexpected name out of the hat contrary to anything the ‘sources’ had planted earlier.”

Union minister Jitendra Singh, meanwhile, praised Sinha and said he carries with him “a rich combination of both political as well as administrative experience”. “Spoke to Shri @manojsinhabjp ji and congratulated him on being appointed as Lieutenant Governor of #JammuAndKashmir. He carries with him a rich combination of both political as well as administrative experience,” Singh tweeted.