Eminent Telugu bureaucrat who held several key positions in the central government, VS Rama Devi, breathed her last at her residence in HSR Layout in Bangalore on Wednesday. She was 79.
Rama Devi had been suffering from old-age related ailments for several months. She is survived by a son and two daughters. She will be cremated at her native place, Chebrolu, in West Godavari district on Thursday.
Rama Devi was the first woman governor of Karnataka and served the state from December 2, 1999 to August 20, 2002. She also held the post of governor of Himachal Pradesh from July 26, 1997 to December 1, 1999.
Rama Devi, who held the post of the chief election commissioner from November 26, 1990 to December 11, 1990, was the only woman to occupy that post till now.
Rama Devi was born on January 15, 1934 at Chebrolu in West Godavari district to VV Subbaiah and Venkata Ratnamma. She was educated at Eluru and Hyderabad. She did her MA in Eluru. After acquiring LLM degree,she enrolled herself as advocate in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
Later, she joined the Central Government Service as a Group-A officer. After working in various capacities as a member of the Indian Legal Service in the legislative department, she became a member-secretary of the Law Commission. Later, she held the post of secretary to the Union government in the Legislative Department.
Subsequently, she held the post of chief election commissioner. She also served as secretary-general of the Rajya Sabha.
She was married to VS Ramavatar. Ramavatar died when Rama Devi was serving as governor of Karnataka.
Devi was good at writing. She penned several essays on Women and law; children and law defection law.