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Subodh Kumar Singh, chief of the National Testing Agency, was removed from his post on Saturday night, in the wake of allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG and UGC-NET exams. He has been put on compulsory wait in the Department of Personnel and Training, and retired 1985 batch officer Pradeep Singh Karola has been appointed in his place till a regular chief is appointed or until further orders.
Over the last two months, the NTA has been in the middle of a row over alleged irregularities and paper leaks in two of the country’s biggest competitive examinations.
And caught in the centre of it all has been 50-year-old Singh — a man who, according to his former colleagues, has always preferred to keep a low profile and avoid the media glare.
A native of Uttar Pradesh, Subodh Kumar has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and an MBA from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi.
Before he took on his current role last June, the IAS officer was serving as the additional secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
He has also served nine years in the Chhattisgarh Secretariat from 2009 to 2018 under the state’s three-time BJP chief minister Raman Singh — first as joint secretary and deputy secretary in personnel and general administration department, then as special secretary and director for personnel management, and secretary to CM.
At the Chief Minister’s Office, the IAS officer served as managing director of the state’s electricity distribution department and later, secretary of mineral resources and industries and commerce department and eventually took a central deputation in 2020.
In Chhattisgarh, he has been credited with digitising the CMO, transforming the state’s mineral sector and bringing road connections to the Naxal-hit areas, his colleagues told The Indian Express. He is also believed to have played a key role in developing airports at Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, and Ambikapur and extending the state’s rail network.
However, having worked with the former Chhattisgarh CM, he was considered close to him, which created the perception that he was a BJP man. As a result, after the Congress government under Bhupesh Singh Baghel came to power in 2018, he was seen as being sidelined — his last posting in the state was as secretary in the state’s labour, stamp and registration department, which he left in January 2020.
Despite the perceived closeness to Raman Singh, even Congress leaders from the state appear to appreciate his work. According to a party leader, Subodh Kumar has steered clear of controversies during his tenure in the CMO.
This, despite corruption allegations against Raman Singh’s government in at least two major cases – a row over mining contracts in the early 2010s and the alleged Rs 36,000 crore Public Distribution Scheme scam around 2015.
“Even as the Raman Singh government landed in controversies, Subodh’s name did not crop up (in the PDS scam) even though the names of two other IAS officers close to Raman Singh were said to be involved,” said the Congress leader.
In 2002, Subodh Kumar received his first national award from the Ministry of Rural Development for excellence in implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. In 2019, he received yet another national award, this one for digital transformation by bringing transparency in auctioning of minerals.
A retired colleague who worked with the IAS officer at the CMO described him as “honest and straightforward”. “He’s a gem of an officer and an asset to the government. It’s unfortunate what is happening right now,” he said, although demanding a thorough inquiry.
A former senior colleague of Kumar’s who is also retired called him “a calm and quiet man who knew when to speak”.
