Kiran Bedi appointed Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Puducherry on 22 May 2016. Puducherry will now have a full time Lt. Governor after a gap of two year. She will succeed Ajay Kumar Singh, the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who was holding the additional charge of Puducherry since July 2014. The LG post of Puducherry was vacant after the union government in July 2014 sacked Virendra Kataria from the post. The appointment comes into effect three days after the Congress-DMK alliance won 17 seats in the 30-member Assembly. About Kiran Bedi • She was India's first woman to join officer ranks of the Indian Police Service. • In 2015, she joined BJP and was the party’s chief ministerial candidate during the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. • She is an IPS officer of 1972 batch who sought voluntary retirement from the service in 2007. • At the time of retirement, she was posted as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development. • After retirement, she hosted as TV show called Aap Ki Kacheri. • She was one of the pioneers of anti-corruption crusade in 2011 along with Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal against the then UPA government. • As DCP of North Delhi, she launched a campaign against drug abuse, which evolved into the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation (renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007). • She has been a tennis player and in 1966 won the national junior tennis championship. Some awards and recognitions with which she was felicitated with • In 1979, she won the President’s Police medal. • In 1994, she became the recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award. • In 1991, she was conferred with the Asia Region Award by International Organization of Good Templars, Norway. • In 2004, she was conferred with UN Medal for outstanding service. • In 2005, she was conferred with Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice by All India Christian Council for reforms in prison and penal systems. She is also the author of several books and some of them are • Demand of Swaraj • It's Always Possible: One Woman's Transformation of Tihar Prison • What Went Wrong?... And Continues • Galti Kiski • Empowering Women… As I See • Leadership & Governance… As I See • Indian Police… As I See and many more