7 August 2014

Mizoram Governor Kamla Beniwal removed

Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India removed Kamla Beniwal the Governor of Mizoram on 6 August 2014. She was removed two months before her tenure was supposed to end.

The President directed that Beniwal shall cease to hold the office and gave additional charge of the office to Vinod Kumar Duggal, Governor of Manipur. Duggal will discharge the functions of the Governor of Mizoram in addition to his own duties, until some regular arrangement for the office of Governor of Mizoram is made.

With this removal order issued by the President, the gubernatorial tenure of 87-year-old Beniwal (a Congress leader from Rajasthan) has ended. Earlier, Beniwal on 6 July 2014 was transferred to Mizoram as a Governor from Gujarat. She was sworn in as the 12th Governor of Mizoram and was administered the Oath of office and Secrecy by Justice BK Sharma, Judge, Gauhati High Court.

About Kamla Beniwal and she as a Governor
• For the first time in October 2009, she was appointed as the governor of Tripura, the first woman to be appointed as governor of a any Northeast state of India
• A month later on 27 November 2009 she was appointed as the governor of Gujarat
• Kamla Beniwal was the member of Indian National Congress
• At the age of 27, she was the first female minister in Rajasthan
• She was the revenue minister in the Ashok Gehlot government

Beniwal became the second governor to be sacked after the removal of Puducherry Lt Governor Virendra Kataria. After appointment of NDA government under Narendra Modi, several governors appointed by UPA government were asked to resign. Some of them resigned and others refused to do so.