Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir’s new Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha said soon after being sworn in on Friday that his administration will soon initiate direct dialogue with the people
The 61-year-old was administered the oath of office by J&K High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal at a simple function in the Raj Bhavan.
“August 5 is a very important day in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. After years of isolation, Jammu and Kashmir joined the national mainstream. I have been told that many works which could not be completed in years have been completed in the past one year,” Sinha told reporters after taking the oath.
“I want to accelerate that development,” he added.
On August 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 was revoked and the state bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Outlining his priorities, Sinha pitched for peace and stability and said the powers of the Constitution will be used for the betterment of the people and for the development of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We need to establish a dialogue with the common people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. “We don’t have any agenda in that. There will be no discrimination against anyone. Constitution will be Gita in that.”
Sinha said the process of direct dialogue with the people will start in a few days.
“There should be peace and stability in Jammu and Kashmir. The situation of uncertainty should end, terrorism should end. Achieving all this along with accelerated development will be our aim, our mission,” he said.
Less than 150 people were invited for the swearing-in ceremony. Social distancing norms were observed with all invitees seated away from each other and everyone wearing masks in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sinha and the chief justice briefly took off their masks for the oath-taking.
Sinha succeeds former IAS officer Girish Chandra Murmu, who resigned on Wednesday night and was appointed Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Thursday.
The National Conference stayed away from the ceremony for which both Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah were invited.
The National Conference has said the process of democracy should begin by releasing their detained leaders as well as former chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
“On August 5, we were not allowed to meet. Two days later, we are asked to participate in the oath taking ceremony,” an NC leader said.
Advisors to the previous lieutenant governor, including Farooq Khan and Baseer Khan, as well as senior bureaucrats and policemen were present at the function in the Raj Bhavan, at the foothills of the Zaberwan range.
Rajya Sabha member Nazir Ahmed Laway, BJP Lok Sabha member Jugal Kishore Sharma, and Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party leader Ghulam Hasan Mir were also present.
Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha MP who was Minister of State for communication in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in the sale of spectrum. He was elected to the lower house for the first time in 1996 and then in 1999 and 2014. However, he lost the election from Ghazipur in 2019.
A B.Tech in civil engineering from the Institute of Technology (now known as IIT-BHU), Sinha has been credited with overcoming the menace of call dropping by holding widespread consultations with telecom operators.
Born in Mohanpura in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, he began his political career after being elected president of the Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982.
—PTI

Press Trust of India