IAS officer N Prasanth (right) had won the hearts of the people as Kozhikode collector. He was posted as private secretary of union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam on November 27 , 2017.Thiruvananthapuram: Young IAS officer N Prasanth, who became popular as 'Collector Bro,' has been removed as private secretary of union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam.
The Kerala cadre IAS officer, who was appointed to the post on November 27 , 2017, did not even last a year though his appointment was for five years. Differences with the minister is said to be the reason. It has to be noted that Prasanth was chosen overruling the vehement objections of state BJP leaders.
Prasanth was on leave when he took up Kannanthanam's offer. After his stint as collector, Prasanth was posted as higher education deputy secretary but he opted to go on leave. He even wrote a film script in the interim. Prasanth will now be posted as a deputy secretary as per the Central Staffing Scheme. It is still not clear which department he would be posted in.
It was as if the young officer had seen it coming. Recently, in a Facebook post warning new civil service entrants of what lies in store for them, Prasanth said they would be portrayed the wrong way when those in power dislike them, and they would be transferred if they don't agree with those in power. However, there is no official version on why Prasanth has decided to move out of the minister's office.
Prasanth had won the hearts of the people as Kozhikode collector, where he was posted in 2015. He launched a series of people-friendly measures through the ‘Compassionate Kozhikode’ initiative, which spawned a series of innovative welfare programmes like ‘Operation Sulaimani’ (which offered free meal to the hungry with massive people's participation). He was perhaps the first collector in the country to have used social media to reach out to people with telling effect. The collector's Facebook page had over 2.5 lakh followers.
During his stint as collector, Prasanth had also demonstrated that he revelled in rubbing powerful politicians the wrong way. When Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan demanded an apology ('mappu') saying that the collector was delaying the release of MP funds as he was too busy with social media, Prasanth responded with irreverent humour. He posted the picture of a map (which rhymes with the Malayalam 'mappu') on his Facebook page. He was charged with misconduct by the then chief secretary S M Vijayanand, and later relieved of his duties as collector.
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