india

Updated: Aug 24, 2019 08:10 IST

A senior IAS officer, who shot to fame for his selfless efforts during the Kerala floods last year, sent his resignation from the coveted service on Friday.

At the time of putting in his papers, 2012-batch AGMUT cadre officer Kannan Gopinathan held charge as the secretary of key departments like power, urban development and agriculture in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration.

According an official who spoke to HT, Gopinathan had decided to quit the IAS as he felt the service conditions hampered his urge to express his views freely.

When contacted, Gopinathan confirmed that he had put in his papers but added that he would still be an employee till the time his resignation is accepted.

“Technically, I am still an employee so I cannot say more on this,” he said.

Last year, Gopinathan’s efforts in flood-ravaged Kerala had earned his accolades throughout the country.

According to reports, for eight days, Kannan Gopinathan worked at relief camps in flood-ravaged Kerala, spending two of those carrying large packages on his head while offloading relief material from trucks in the port city of Kochi. On the ninth day, he was recognised as an IAS officer and he quietly left, as discreetly as he had arrived and helped.

Gopinathan, a 2012 batch IAS officer was then serving as district collector in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had arrived in Kerala on August 26 as the state battled devastation from deadly floods. He was on an official visit to hand over a cheque for Rs one crore from Dadra and Nagar Haveli for the Kerala chief minister’s relief fund.

Once that engagement was over, the 32-year-old took a bus from state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Not to his home town Puthupally, but to one of Kerala’s worst-affected areas, Chengannur, where he went from camp to camp helping distressed people forced to abandon their homes and seek shelter.

However, the news then become viral on social media earning his much praise for his efforts.