Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan has been given a fresh tenure of five years in the Hyderabad Raj Bhawan while B V Wanchoo,a former chief of the Special Protection Group,has been named as the new Governor of Goa. The government on Saturday announced appointments to Raj Bhawans in five states with only Wanchoo and Aziz Qureshi,a former Congress MP from Satna,being the new entrants. Qureshi,who has been a minister in Madhya Pradesh earlier,has been given the charge of Uttarakhand,a press release issued by the Rashtrapati Bhawan said. The current occupant of the Uttarakhand Raj Bhawan,Margaret Alva,has been moved to Rajasthan for the remainder of her gubernatorial tenure. She was appointed as Uttarakhand Governor in July 2009. Like Narasimhan,Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan too has been given a fresh term in his current assignment. Narasimhan has been Governor of Andhra Pradesh since December 2009 while Sankaranarayanan took charge in January 2010. Narasimhans fresh appointment in Hyderabad is likely to irk the pro-Telangana activists who have not been very happy with the role of the Governor. A former director of the Intelligence Bureau,this 1968-batch IPS officer is often seen as a part of the Centres reluctance to agree to the demand of creating a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh. Wanchoo,a 1976-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre who is known to enjoy the trust of the Gandhi family,will relieve Sankaranarayanan who was holding an additional charge of Goa till now. Similarly,Margaret Alva,who had been pushing for a transfer out of Uttarakhand for some time,will take charge from Shivraj Patil the Punjab Governor who had been holding additional charge of Rajasthan.
