Dadra & Nagar Haveli IAS officer, a hero during 2018 Kerala floods, quits from service

While the precise reasons behind the officer’s resignation are not yet clear, he has hinted that he was “losing his voice” while performing his official duties. “Many of us come into service with the desire to give voice to the people we serve. But when I felt that I was losing my own voice, or that my voice was being muzzled, I decided to resign. If I cannot function, I should be able to express my voice freely according to my conscience,” the officer told Manorama News, a Malayalam news channel. The officer was unavailable for comment. Read in Malayalam

On August 20, the officer on his personal Twitter account had tweeted in a similar vein, “I once thought that being in civil services meant an opportunity to expand the rights and freedoms of fellow citizens.”

Kannan, who has previously served as the district collector of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) administration, is an electrical engineer from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. He worked as a design engineer with a private firm before entering the administrative services. He secured the 59th rank in the 2012 civil services examination.

Kannan, while he was the district collector of DNH administration, had grabbed the spotlight during the devastating floods in his home-state Kerala last year when he was seen actively participating in relief and rescue operations in Chengannur, one of the worst-affected regions. Carrying sacks of relief materials on his back and helping distribute them at relief camps, the IAS officer pitched in, discreetly like any other common man. Ultimately, a fellow officer gave away his identity and his face came to be plastered on television channels and news websites. As the official representative of the DNH administration, he also handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the CM disaster relief fund last year.