Saturday (November 2): The Union Ministry of Home Affairs today released a new map of India with 28 states and 9 Union Territories.
With the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh formally coming into existence, number of UTs is increased by two.
The new political map comes two days after Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh officially came into existence, in line with the August 5 announcement ending the special status of the state under Article 370.
On Friday, the Lieutenant Governors of the two UTs took oath of office along with the Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
Last week, the Union government appointed serving IAS officer of Gujarat cadre Girish Chandra Murmu as the LG of Jammu and Kashmir, and retired bureaucrat of Tripura cadre Radha Krishna Mathur as LG of Ladakh.
While Dilbagh Singh will continue to be DG of J&K police, an IG-level officer will head the police in Ladakh.
Both forces will remain part of the J&K cadre which will eventually merge with the Union Territory cadre.
The state administration is not clear whether the Chief Justice will be asked to take the oath again as the State is being converted into a UT.
J&K Law Secretary Achal Sethi had earlier told The Indian Express: “This order (of oath of Chief Justice) is required to be issued by the central government. This is not the domain of the state government. There is no such order as of now.”
The government is yet to appoint separate Chief Secretaries for the two UTs and an Inspector General of Police (IGP) for Ladakh.
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