NTA DG Subodh Kumar replaced, Pradeep Singh Kharola becomes new DG

Amidst the NEET exam controversy, the central government replaced National Testing Agency (NTA) Director General Subodh Kumar Singh on Saturday night. Pradeep Singh Kharola has been appointed as the new DG. He is a retired IAS officer of 1985 batch of Karnataka cadre. Kharola is the CMD of Indian Trade Promotion Organization.

On May 1, 2024, he was given the additional charge of Chairman of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). Meanwhile, the NEET- PG exam to be held on June 23 has also been canceled. The new date will be announced later. It is conducted by the National Board of Education in Medical Sciences (NBEMS). This exam was to be held on Sunday at more than 1000 centers in 300 cities.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Ministry of Education announced a 7-member high level committee to prevent irregularities and bring transparency in NTA examinations. Former Chairman of ISRO and former Director of IIT Kanpur K. Radhakrishnan will be its chief. This committee will submit its report to the Ministry of Education in 2 months.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had announced this in a press conference on June 20 on the NEET exam controversy. The Education Minister had said that this committee will give suggestions to the Ministry of Education to further improve the structure, functioning, exam process, transparency, transfer and data, security protocol of NTA.

NTA postponed the CSIR UGC NET exam on Friday at 8:30 pm. This exam was to be held between June 25-27. The reason for postponing the exam is said to be lack of resources. NTA said that the new time table of this exam will be uploaded soon on the official website csirnet.nta.ac.in.

Two days ago on June 19, NTA canceled the UGC NET exam after the possibility of irregularities. Earlier, NCET exam was canceled on June 12.