Vinai Kumar Saxena has been appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi by Shri Ramnath Kovind. A statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan informed that President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted Baijal’s resignation and appointed Vinai Kumar Saxena as the new Lieutenant Governor. Baijal, who served as Delhi LG for five years and four months, resigned due to some personal reasons. Baijal, a 1969-batch IAS officer from the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, Baijal has served as Union Home Secretary under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He also held key positions in several Ministries. After retiring from service in 2006 as Secretary of the Urban Development Ministry, he was associated with the planning and implementation of Rs 60,000 crore JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) by the UPA government. He was appointed as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in December 2016 after the sudden resignation of the then LG Najeeb Jung.
As per the statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan, “The President of India has accepted the resignation of Shri Anil Baijal as Lt. Governor of National Capital Territory of Delhi. The President of India has been pleased to appoint Vinai Kumar Saxena to be the Lt Governor of National Capital Territory of Delhi with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office.”
Who is Vinai Kumar Saxena?
Vinai Kumar Saxena, born on March 23, 1958, is a Kanpur University alumnus with a Pilot license. He is the current chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, an organisation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. In 1984, he joined the well-known JK Group in Rajasthan as an assistant officer. In the group’s white cement plant in the state, he worked for 11 years in various capacities. Then, in 1991, he founded the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), a non-profit NGO with its headquarters in Ahmedabad. NCCL is recognised by the Ministry of Law and Justice. The NCCL opposed social activist Medha Patkar and her Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in their attempts to stop construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat.
Saxena, in November 2020, was nominated as a member of the Padma Awards selection panel for the year 2021. In March 2021, he was appointed by the Union government as a member of the national committee to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence. Now has been appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi by Shri Ramnath Kovind.
