By IANS
New Delhi : Former army chief General Joginder Jaswant Singh was Thursday appointed governor of Arunachal Pradesh.
He takes over from K. Sankaranarayanan, the Nagaland governor who is holding additional charge of Arunachal Pradesh.
Gen. Singh, the first Sikh chief of the army staff of India, will be the sixth top defence official to occupy the gubernatorial post.
The others are Gen. S.F. Rodrigues (Punjab), Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (Jammu and Kashmir), Lt. Gen. Ajay Singh (Assam), Lt. Gen. M.M. Lakhera (Mizoram) and Lt. Gen. K.M. Seth (Chhattisgarh), all retired from service.
The appointment, made by President Pratibha Patil, will be with effect from the date Gen. Singh assumes charge of his office, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said.
After his retirement as army chief, Gen. Singh was elected president of the capital’s classy Gymkhana Club.
In a related development, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet also approved the appointment of Raghav Sharan Pandey, presently secretary in the ministry of steel, as an advisor to the governor of Nagaland.