The Voluntary Retirement (VRS) prematurely taken by the senior IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu government had stirred controversy as the bureaucrat had opposed the changes to the tender norms of the state government on BharatNet. 

According to the reports, senior IAS officer Santhosh Babu has taken voluntary retirement from his administrative services. He is the 1995 batch IAS officer and being a medical doctor, he had served in various posts and departments for the past 25 years. His last working day was August 22 and with two decades of long service, Santhosh Babu would be joining a coaching center for civil service aspirants in Chennai as a teacher. 

The reports stated that Santhosh Babu will be joining as a full-time teacher and mentor in the Chennai-based Officers IAS Academy. The institute said that the bureaucrat will be teaching public administration along with the areas of general studies. He will also serve as the Chief Mentor in carving the aspirants in becoming the civil service officers. 

Santhosh Babu's retirement has come days after the state government was castigated by the opposition over the Center's rejection of the state's BharatNet tender by citing irregularities. BharatNet is an Indian government initiative to connect all rural villages with the broadband network and the state government's invitation to bid the tender had surfaced major controversies with the Chennai based organization charged the government for its biased tender notification. 

After the cancellation, the Center had directed the state government to issue a fresh order for the project. As his VRS request was granted by the state, it was speculated that he had retired from the service after he went upset over the pressure levied on him from the state government to approve the tender in Tamil Nadu Fiber Net Corporation as he was serving as the Managing Director for the state corporation. He had also served as the Principal Secretary of the Information Technology department. 

The BharatNet tender aims to connect around 2,500 village panchayats in Tamil Nadu through fiber optic cable. He has applied for voluntary retirement when he still has eight years of service left. Following his retirement, Tamil Nadu Opposition Leader had urged the Chief Minister to issue his statement on the matter. After retiring,   he has written to his circle and said that his work in government has been very significant. During his service, the bureaucrat had worked on easing the government services in a way that would be easily accessible for common people.