Bhubaneswar: What seems as a promising career has become a burden for 32-year Kannan Gopinathan, who now holds various positions in the union territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli including Secretary, Power & Non Conventional Source of Energy.
Kannan, who has earned fame for his selfless service during the Kerala Floods in 2018, has again came into limelight after resigning from his job on Friday.
In a letter to the Home Secretary on August 21, Kannan has said that he wishes to be relieved from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), as reported by a Bangalore-based digital news platform The News Minute (TNM).
“I want my freedom of expression intact. I joined the services believing I can give voice to others, but here I am unable to use my own voice. My resignation will give me my freedom of expression back,” Kannan Gopinathan told TNM.
“I know this won’t make any impact, it would be news for half a day only. But I wanted to do it nevertheless. I wanted to act as per my consciousness,” he added.
A tweet put out by Kannan on August 20 read, “I once thought that being in civil services meant an opportunity to expand rights and freedoms of fellow citizens!”
I once thought that being in civil services meant an opportunity to expand the rights and freedoms of fellow citizens!
— Kannan (@naukarshah) August 20, 2019
Kannan had earned accolades during his tenure as the then District Collector of the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli when he had visited flood ravaged Kerala in 2018 to hand over an official cheque towards the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
Instead of returning to his district, he had stayed back in Kerala and worked at relief camps for around eight days without disclosing his identity. He also left discreetly after being recognised by Ernakulam district collector YS Safirulla. But news about his work spread like wildfire.
As I go back after a week long volunteering in the flood relief work, it was an experience inspired by the humanity all around.
Tired as hell physically with all the loading/unloading stuff. But the mind has never been as refreshed.#RebuildKerala #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/iyZxDt8ayZ
— Kannan (@naukarshah) September 3, 2018
