Agencies

New Delhi, August 24:

The Centre today sent back three senior IAS officers to Jammu and Kashmir before completion of their tenure here.

The militancy-hit state is at present under the Governor’s rule after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support from its alliance partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June this year.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved premature repatriation of Arun Kumar Mehta, Atal Dulloo and Manoj Kumar Dwivedi to Jammu and Kashmir, according to an order issued by the Personnel Ministry.

All of them are IAS officers of J-K cadre.

Mehta is Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Dulloo and Dwivedi are Joint Secretaries in the Department of Rural Development and the Commerce Ministry respectively.

Former Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik was yesterday sworn in as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He replaced N N Vohra, who was at the helm of affairs in the state for the past 10 years.