New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Goa on Friday. Malik has been replaced by Girish Chandra Murmu, who takes over as the first Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Jammu-Kashmir.

Murmu is a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, who is serving as the Union Expenditure Secretary. He has previously served as Principal Secretary to PM Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.

In another big development, retired IAS officer and former Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur has been appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.

Mathur is 1977 batch IAS officer of Tripura cadre and his last appointment was in the capacity of Chief Information Commissioner of India.

The appointments come ahead of the state being formally classified as a Union Territory on October 31.

The state was divided into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – when the union government stripped it of its special status and the reorganisation act will come into effect on October 31. The swearing-in ceremony of the new L-G is likely to take place on the same date.

In another appointment, PS Sreedharan Pillai has been named as the Governor of Mizoram.

"The above appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices," the statement added.