M A I N   N E W S

Verma new Punjab Governor, Kokje Himachal’s

New Delhi, May 2
Ending prolonged suspense, the Centre today appointed Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd) as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, shifting him from Assam, and named senior BJP leaders Kailashpati Mishra and Ram Prakash Gupta as Governors in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh along with new faces for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

General Sinha (77), former Vice-Chief of Army Staff and former Ambassador to Nepal, replaces Mr G.C. Sexena, who completed his five-year term in Srinagar today. General Sinha has been in Assam for more than five years.

Veteran BJP leader and 77-year-old Mishra, currently Vice-President of the party, has been appointed Governor of Gujarat, where he would replace another party veteran, Mr Sunder Singh Bhandari. Mr Mishra, who began his career with the RSS in 1945, served as Finance Minister of Bihar during 1977-80.

Madhya Pradesh gets a new Governor in 80-year-old Gupta, who became Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for a brief tenure of 11 months a couple of years ago before being removed to make way for Mr Rajnath Singh. Mr Gupta, now a member of the UP Legislative Council, will replace Bhai Mahavir.

Justice Om Prakash Verma, a former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, has been appointed as Governor of Punjab with additional charge as Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. He replaces Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd). Another new appointee is Justice V.S. Kokje, who has been given the gubernatorial posting in Shimla, succeeding Mr Suraj Bhan.

Yet another appointee from the legal fraternity is Mr Nirmal Chandra Jain, a former Advocate-General of Madhya Pradesh. He will replace Justice Anshuman Singh in Rajasthan. PTI

Verma Punjab’s 30th Governor
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 2
Former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, Om Parkash Verma (66), will be the 30th Governor of Punjab. He comes in place of Lieut-Gen JFR Jacob (retd). General Jacob was appointed Governor of Punjab-cum-Administrator of Chandigarh in November, 1999.

Justice Verma had been Lokayukta as well as Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission of Himachal Pradesh since 1999. The Himachal Pradesh Human Rights Commission was scrapped in September last year.

Justice Verma, who was named a permanent Judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1984, was elevated as the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court in 1997 from where he superannuated in 1999.

He started his career as a Junior Division Civil Judge in UP in 1961 after doing his Law from Delhi University. In 1970, he was promoted in the same cadre as a Civil and Assistant Sessions Judge. In 1971 he became Deputy Secretary/Deputy Legal Adviser in the Union Ministry of Law.

In 1975, he was appointed as a Judicial member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. A formal notification about his appointment as the Administrator of Chandigarh is also expected to be made in a day or two.