Daman & Diu: IAS Officer Who Quit Over J&K Told to Resume Work Till Resignation Accepted

Kannan Gopinathan said that he was aware of the notice, but declined to comment further.

Silvassa: An IAS officer here who resigned over the denial of “freedom of expression” in J&K following the recent lockdown has been asked to get back to work, said reports on Thursday. Some reports said Kannan Gopinath was also upset that his own freedom of expression was curtailed because of the service rules which didn’t allow him to speak up.

Gopinathan has been asked to continue work till his resignation is accepted. He was the Secretary, Power Department of the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and had put in his papers on August 21.

The Personnel Department of Daman and Diu has now asked him to attend the office till his resignation to the Ministry of Home Affairs is accepted. The government notice was put up at Gopinath’s door as he wasn’t present at the time.

“…you are hereby directed to continue attending to your assigned duties immediately, till a decision is taken on your resignation,” it said.

Gopinathan told PTI that he was aware of the notice, but declined to comment further.

On resigning, the IAS officer had said he wanted to express his views against the “denial of freedom of expression” in Kashmir even as his resignation did not mention the Kashmir issue.

It was only after he had resigned did Gopinathan, who is from Kottayam district of Kerala, say that while it was the government’s right to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, in a democracy, people have the right to respond, too.

“After taking the decision on Kashmir, nearly 20 days have passed and even now, the people there are not allowed to react or respond to it and that is not acceptable in a democratic set-up. Personally, I could not accept it and continue in the service during such a time,” he had said to media.