Meri Sarkar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor GC Murmu, who abruptly resigned on Wednesday, has been appointed as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Thursday.
CAG is the supreme constitutional body that audits the finances of Union government and ensures that every single penny collected from taxpayers and Indian public has been spent and accounted for in a transparent and verifiable manner.
The decision to appoint Murmu came exactly a year after the Central government reorganized Jammu and Kashmir, bifurcating the erstwhile border state into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Official sources told reporters that Murmu resigned as the Lt Governor, and he is being replaced by Manoj Sinha, former Union Minister of State for Railways.
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Murmu replaced Rajiv Mehrishi, a 1978 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, as the CAG.
A 1985 batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Murmu was Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. He became the first Lt Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
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The 60-year-old former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre had on October 29 last year taken over as the first LG of the union territory after the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of Indian Constitution was abrogated.
Murmu was a secretary in the ministry of finance at the time of his appointment as Lt Governor.
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