The Centre on Sunday named BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as lieutenant-governor of Puducherry, a post held by the Andamans and Nicobar lieutenant-governor for the past two years as an a
The Centre on Sunday named BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as lieutenant-governor of Puducherry, a post held by the Andamans and Nicobar lieutenant-governor for the past two years as an additional charge.
Ms Bedi, 66, the BJP’s CM candidate in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, said she was grateful as the government “trusted” me and “I look forward to giving every bit of myself to the responsibility”.
Ms Bedi, the country’s first woman IPS officer, added: “I was posted in Mizoram, Goa, Chandigarh, but I missed out on Andamans and Pondicherry. It is a wonderful opportunity. It’s a part of my own cadre.”
Ms Bedi’s appointment comes just days after the Congress-DMK alliance came to power in Puducheery, winning 17 seats in the Union territory’s 30-member Assembly.
The post of Puducherry lieutenant-governor had been lying vacant after the Narendra Modi government had removed UPA nominee Virendra Kataria nearly a year after he was appointed. Andaman and Nicobar Islands lieutenant-governor Ajay Singh had been given the additional charge of Puducherry.
Ms Bedi had led the BJP campaign in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections but had to face a huge defeat in her maiden political innings with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP winning 67 of its 70 seats. An IPS officer of the 1972 batch, Ms Bedi had sought voluntary retirement from service in 2007. She was then posted as director-general of Bureau of Police Research and Development.
She is a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award as well as the UN Medal for outstanding service. She was one of the pioneers of the anti-corruption crusade in 2011 along with Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal against the then UPA government. Ms Bedi also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi’s Department of Social Sciences in 1993.
