NEW DELHI: The Lt Governor of Delhi, Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh (retd), has resigned.
He tendered his resignation to the President, Mr R. Venkataraman, Dec 9 when Mr Venkataraman informed Mr Arjan Singh that the government wanted to appoint a new LtGovernor in Delhi, official sources said Dec 10.
Mr Arjan Singh sent in his resignation letter to the President, saying that it was the privilege of the government to appoint a Governor.
Mr Arjan Singh was appointed to this post on December 14 last year by the V.P. Singh government, after his predecessor, Mr Romesh Bhandari, had resigned.
The sources said that Mr Markandey Singh, a retired IPS officer, is being tipped as the new Lt Governor of Delhi. Considered close to the Prime Minister, Mr Markandey Singh had joined the Delhi Police as a Deputy Superintendent and had served the special branch of the capital’s police setup in the early seventies. Later, he was posted to northeast.
Mr Arjan Singh thus became the first top executive of a state or union territory to quit office since the Chandra Shekhar government assumed office on November 10.
The President, who is currently on a tour of Tripura, Meghalaya and Bihar, would consider the resignation letter after his return here on December 13.
Mr Arjan Singh told newsmen that Dec 9 around 7 p.m. the President himself rang him up and told him that the government wanted to appoint somebody else in his place.
“Within one hour of the President’s call” which Mr Arjan Singh described as “most gracious and unusual”, I took the decision and sent in my resignation letter which must have reached the President latest by 8:30 a.m.
“The government apparently if of the view that the affairs of Delhi can be managed better by somebody else.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 14, 1990
