Srinagar: The first Lieutenant Governor for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu, will take oath of office on Thursday as the erstwhile state of J&K formally ceases to exist and is bifurcated into two union territories of J&K and Ladakh.
Murmu will take oath at a low-key affair with no union minister or prominent functionaries expected to join the function at Srinagar.
A similar ceremony will take place earlier in Leh where R K Mathur will take oath of office as the first Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.
Murmu, 59, an IAS officer of 1987 batch, would be administered oath of office and secrecy by Chief Justice of J&K High Court Gita Mittal at the Raj Bhavan in Srinagar Thursday afternoon.
Murmu is one of the youngest governors and has no previous experience of Jammu and Kashmir. He was currently serving as Expenditure secretary in the Government of India and is considered as a close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the appointed day for the two union territories of J&K and Ladakh is October 31 and these will come into existence in the midnight (Wednesday-Thursday), nearly three months after the announcement in Rajya Sabha.
This is for the first time that a state is converted into two UTs even though there are numerous example of a UT becoming a full state or a state bifurcating into two states.
The total number of states in the country will be now 28 while the total UTs will go up to seven.
According to reports, Chief Justice Gita Mittal will first administer the oath of office to Radha Krishna Mathur in Leh at at 7:15 am. Later, she will fly to Srinagar to administer the oath of office to G C Murmu at 12:45 pm.
Kashmir is observing a shutdown since August 5, when Government of India announced the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of state into two union territories.
Due to the prevailing situation and continuous shutdown since August 5, the oath ceremony will be a sombre affair.
After the oath ceremony, the five Advisors of Governor will cease to exist and the names of Advisors for the Lieutenant Governors of J&K and Ladakh would be approved by Government of India.
The terms of advisors K Vijay Kumar, Khursheed Ganai, K Sikandan and KK Sharma come to an end immediately.
According to the Reorganisation Act, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir will have a legislature like Puducherry while Ladakh will be a UT without legislature like Chandigarh and both the UTs will be headed by two separate Lieutenant Governors (LG).
New Delhi will be in direct control of the police and the law and order in Jammu and Kashmir from Thursday when it becomes a UT, while the land will be under the elected government there.
The UT of Ladakh will be under the direct control of the central government which will administer the high altitude region through the LG.
While moving the resolution in the Rajya Sabha that abrogated Article 370 — which allowed Jammu and Kashmir to have its own Constitution and prohibited outsiders from buying land and property in the state, Shah had said these provisions will no longer be applicable and the GoI will restore its statehood at “appropriate time” and after “normalcy” returns.
Soon after the abrogation of the Article 370, several hundred political leaders and separatists were put under detention by the Jammu and Kashmir administration while restrictions were also imposed on movement of people, vehicles, telephone, mobile phones and internet.
While most of the restrictions were removed since then, curb on internet is still continuing and situation in the Kashmir Valley is yet to be termed as complete normal.
Among those put under detention include three former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 says the all India Services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), of J-K cadre will continue to serve in the two succeeding UTs while new recruits of these services will be allocated in the Arunachal, Goa, Mizoram Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.
The provincial service officers will continue serving in their current positions till a new order is issued by the Lt Governors for the two new UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The IAS, IPS and other central service officers and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will be under the control of the LG and not the elected government of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mehbooba was the last chief minister of undivided Jammu and Kashmir whose tenure ended in June 2017 when central rule was imposed after her coalition partner BJP withdrew support. Satya Pal Malik is the last governor whose tenure comes to an end on Wednesday. He has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa.
Just a day before Jammu and Kashmir is divided into two UTs, the National Conference on Wednesday made a fervent last minute appeal to New Delhi to shelve the plan and maintain the statehood of the “200-year-old state” dubbed as “crown of India”.

Mir Iqbal