New Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to take charge on January 3
Imphal: New Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla would assume office on January 3, officials said here on Tuesday.
Officials said that Manipur High Court Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar would administer the oath of office and secrecy to Bhalla as the Governor at the Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan in Imphal on Friday.
President Droupadi Murmu on December 24 appointed former Union Home Secretary Bhalla as the next Governor of the trouble-torn Manipur, replacing Anusuiya Uikey.
Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya has been holding additional charge of the state since July 31.
Bhalla, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, as the top official of the Ministry of Home Affairs for a long time, has extensive experience in dealing the crisis situations in the northeastern region.
He was the Union Home Secretary when the ethnic violence between the majority Meitei and minority Koki-Zo community began in Manipur on May 3, 2023.
During the 20-month-long ethnic violence, over 250 men and women of both communities were killed, over 1,000 were injured and more than 60,000 people were displaced from their homes and villages.
Bhalla’s appointment as Governor is a significant move to deal with the ethnic hostilities in the mixed-population northeastern state.
Despite the unprecedented deployment of Central security forces and partial reimposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in certain areas, violent incidents are taking place in a few districts. However, many organisations including the influential Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of the Meitei community, have been demanding to repeal of AFSPA.
The Manipur Chief Minister recently said that bringing a solution to the ongoing ethnic strife in the state would take time as the situation has become complex, chronic and fragile. He had said that gradually, the situation in Manipur is improving with most of the districts remaining incident-free for the past several months.
“The state and Central security forces along with the civil administration are doing their best to maintain the violence-free situation and to deliver services to the people,” Biren Singh had told the media.