Gulab Chand Kataria takes oath as Punjab governor, says will tour border areas

Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice Sheel Nagu administered the oath to Kataria at a ceremony in Raj Bhawan here

BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria, 79, was on Wednesday sworn in as the governor of Punjab and administrator of Chandigarh.

Gulab Chand Kataria with chief minister Bhagwant Mann after being sworn in as Punjab governor. (Sanjeev Sharma/HT)

Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice Sheel Nagu administered the oath to Kataria at a ceremony in Raj Bhawan here. Kataria, who was the Assam governor before his present assignment, has replaced Banwarilal Purohit, who remained the governor of Punjab for nearly three years before tendering his resignation in February 3. President Droupadi Murmu accepted his resignation on July 27. Kataria is the 37th governor of Punjab.

Speaking to reporters after taking the oath in Hindi, Kataria said he has been entrusted with an important responsibility and he will try his best to serve the people of the state. He said these posts are not decorative, they are for serving the people. “My nature has been to work in coordination with all. We may be fighting elections from different parties, but our only objective is to serve people,” he said.

The governor said he will try to work as a good public servant and his performance will be known after six to eight months. “I will definitely visit the border areas and all districts. I will also review the works of the Centre and the state government. To take them forward, I will also give suggestions to district collectors so that we can collectively do people’s work in an efficient way,” Kataria said in response to a query. On relationship with the chief minister, he said, “Time will tell.”

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann shares a laugh with ex-governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore, who attended Kataria’s swearing-in ceremony, and speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. Both Badnore and Kataria hail from Rajasthan (Sanjeev Sharma/HT)

Welcoming the new governor, chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who had frequent run-ins with Purohit, said he (Kataria) is an experienced leader, an eight-time MLA and remained a minister in the Rajasthan government. “We will use his experience and will work together for the benefit of people,” he added. Kataria, who belongs to Udaipur, has roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He served as the Rajasthan home minister twice — from 2004-08 and from 2015-18 — in the Vasundhara Raje government. He also served as education, public works panchayati raj, rural development and disaster management minister, besides being the leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly. An eight-time former MLA and one-time MP, the BJP veteran was appointed the governor of Assam in February 2023.

Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya, former Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, Punjab vidhan sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, cabinet ministers, including Harpal Singh Cheema and Gurmeet Singh Khudian, former Haryana minister Ram Bilas Sharma and several BJP leaders from Haryana and Chandigarh were present at the oath-taking ceremony. Kataria’s wife Anita Kataria, his daughters and other family members were also present, besides CM Mann’s wife Gurpreet Kaur. Mann introduced his ministers to the governor.