Shivraj Patil named Governor of Punjab

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan has been appointed Governor of West Bengal, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued in New Delhi late on Saturday night. He is among the five new Governors appointed by the United Progressive Alliance government.

Former Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, was appointed Governor of Punjab as well as Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the communique said. The other new gubernatorial appointments are those of M.O.H. Farook, senior Congress leader and former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as Governor of Jharkhand; Urmila Singh, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) who hails from Madhya Pradesh, as Governor of Himachal Pradesh; and Shekhar Dutta, former Defence Secretary, as Governor of Chhattisgarh.

The UPA government also transferred three Governors. While E.S.L. Narasimhan was shifted to the Andhra Pradesh Raj Bhavan from Chhattisgarh for the remainder of his term, Prabha Rau was transferred from Himachal Pradesh to Rajasthan for the remainder of her gubernatorial term. K. Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Jharkhand, has been moved to the Maharashtra Raj Bhavan.

With Narayanan’s appointment as Governor, the government is now all set to name a new NSA. Former Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon isstated to be the op contender for the post, though Shyam Saran, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, is also in the reckoning.

- Asian Tribune -