Dr. Ashok Kumar Sinha (Rtd.) IAS
Dr Ashok Kumar Sinha assumed charge of the post of Chairperson of State Appellate Authority on 20th March, 2021 and has been working since on that post.
Dr Sinha is a retired officer of Indian Administrative Service. He belonged to Bihar cadre and 1976 batch. He joined I.A.S. in July 1976 at the age of 22 and after working for 38 years retired on 30th June 2014 from the post of Chief Secretary of the state. Before being appointed as Chief Secretary he worked on various important posts like Agriculture Production Commissioner, Industrial Development Commissioner, Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, Development Commissioner, etc. He has vast experience in fields of Agriculture and Irrigation. When he was Agriculture Production Commissioner the state achieved record production in rice and wheat which exceeded national average. It was possible mainly due to introduction of SRI technique and hybrid rice on large scale in paddy cultivation and SRI technique and zero tillage practice in wheat. For this achievement and several other important achievements like revival of Rajya Beej Nigam, opening of Krishi Vigyan Kendra in all districts, opening of a new Agriculture University and several new Agriculture Colleges, etc. he was honoured with an honaris Ph. D. degree. As Chief Secretary he undertook to review supply of electricity with District Magistrates on video conference and through these video-conferences and a district-wise analysis of electric supply system was able to reach the self fixed target of 22-24 hours of uninterrupted supply in district headquarters and above 18 hours supply in rural areas within a short period of six months. As Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department he was responsible for preparation of a River Inter-linking Project for irrigation and flood control in consultation with experts from all over the country.
In course of his career Dr. Sinha received several important awards. As Sub-divisional Officer of Jamshepur and Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh he received special commendation of State Government for handling of communal riots after he was posted to these places immediately after communal riots. As District Magistrate of Sitamarhi he received special commendation of Planning Commission for developmental works. As Deputy Commissioner of Giridih he was able to control the problem of extremism by bringing extremists into mainstream of development in a short period of ten months which was widely appreciated . During his tenure in Agriculture Department the state received ' Krishi Karman' Award from Government of India After retirement from I.A.S., Dr Sinha worked for some time as Director of Good Governance Centre of the state government. Then he was appointed as Chief Information Commissioner of the state which was at that time equivalent to Chief Election Commissioner of Government of India and a Judge of Supreme Court of India. Through his sustained efforts he brought the pendency of cases down from 35,000 to a few thousand and waiting time from over two years to a few months. He started a special fast track system for needy people like students seeking copy of their answer books. He retired from this post on 30th June 2019. Before joining I.A.S. he had worked as Probationary Officer, State Bank of India for about a year.
Dr Sinha was born into a middle class farmer family on 1st July 1954 in Pilkhi in district of Muzaffarpur. He was younger of two sons of Late Srimati Shakuntala Sinha and Late Sri Raghunath Prasad Sinha. His father was an officer of Government of Bihar who retired as Deputy Director, Employment. His elder brother Dr B. K. Sinha retired from post of Head of the Department, Bio-Chemistry in S. K. Medical College, Muzaffarpur.
Schooling of Dr Sinha took place in Zila School, Dhanbad and Zila School, Chapra. Having passed Higher Secondary Examination at the age of 13 with third position in the state he took admission in Science College, Patna which was at that time a premier institution. He passed B.Sc.(Hons.) examination from there with honours in Physics and distinction in Mathematics and Statistics, securing First class First position with three gold medals. His master degree was however interrupted by a political agitation and before he could complete his master degree in Physics he got into State Bank of India and then into Indian Administrative Service. However, the dream of a master degree persisted with him until he completed it eighteen years later, again securing first position in Science College. Dr Sinha still has a great passion for Physics.
Dr Sinha is husband of a lovely devoted wife Bimla Sinha, M.A. in Psychology and a proud father of Mr. Rohitasva and Ms. Pankhudi both of whom work in San francisco(USA) as Software Engineers. Mr Rohitasva is a Bachelor in Computer Engineering from Purdue University (with some credits from University of California, Berkley). Ms. Pankhudi has done B.S. with honours in Computer Science from California Institute of Technology, M.S. (Comp. Sc.) from Stanford University and M.B.A. from INSEAD (France).
Whatever little Dr Sinha has achieved in life, he credits it to his loving parents and elder brother and to his wife who has been with him through ups and downs of life with same devotion and love ......... and above all to the grace of Almighty.
