Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, July 29: Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is understood to have approved former Director General of Punjab Police P.S. Gill’s appointment as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir state.
Highly placed bureaucratic and political sources disclosed to STATE TIMES on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accorded approval to Mr Gill’s appointment as J&K Governor and the PMO has sent the file to the Union Home Ministry for processing the warrant of appointment.
Attempts to seek confirmation from Minister of State Dr Jitender Singh and others in PMO were not successful.
If these sources are to be believed, Mr Gill could be appointed even before the Independence Day of August 15. In its edition of July 16, STATE TIMES had exclusively reported that Mr Gill was in the top consideration zone of BJP high command, with strong support of RSS, for J&K Raj Bhavan. His possible appointment can cut short incumbent Governor Narendra Nath Vohra’s second term by 3 years.
On completion of his first term of five years in 2013, Dr Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led UPA government had appointed Mr Vohra for another term which would have normally lasted till 2018. However, after the change of regime and Mr Modi’s taking over as Prime Minister in 2014, Mr Vohra had offered to quit when the NDA government removed over a dozen of the Governors and Lt Governors appointed by the previous regime.
According to sources, Mr Vohra had been advised to continue with the assurance that Mr Modi’s government had immediately no intention to appoint a new Governor in the sensitive State of Jammu and Kashmir.
After serving J&K for about 30 years on several key positions, Mr Gill functioned as DGP in his home State of Punjab. He has a remarkable contribution to his credit in fighting militancy and organising the counter-insurgent Special Operations Group of J&K Police in close coordination with Army and paramilitary forces.
Of the senior Police officers of J&K experience, Surendra Nath had been appointed as Governor of Punjab in August 1991 when militancy in that state was at its peak during President’s rule. He had previously served as Advisor to Governor Arjun Singh. On July 9, 1994, when Nath was also holding the charge of Administrator of Chandigarh and Governor of Himachal Pradesh—he was originally a Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS officer—he died while flying from Chandigarh to Kulu as his Beachcraft crashed into the hilly terrain. His role in fighting militancy in Punjab had been widely appreciated across the country.
Gurbachan Jagat, a Punjab cadre IPS officer who served as DGP of J&K from February 1997 to December 2000, functioned as Governor of Manipur from 2008 to 2013, after serving a stint as DG BSF and member of Union Public Service Commission. For the last 18 months of his tenure, he worked as Chairman of UPSC.
Gopal Sharma, an IPS officer of J&K cadre, who served as DGP in J&K during Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s PDP-Congress coalition from 2004 to 2007, functioned as Advisor (Security) to Governor Jagat in Manipur.( Courtesy: State times)
