S. Sasikanth Senthil, the Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, resigned from the Indian Administrative Service on Friday, telling 'friends' in a letter that the 'fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner'.
While Senthil has stated that the resignation was a personal decision, he said in the letter that it was unethical for him to continue as a civil servant in the government when the 'fundamental building blocks of democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner'.
He added that the resignation was not in any way connected to any event or a particular person.
'The people and the public representatives of DK (Dakshina Kannada) have been extremely kind to me and I owe an apology to them for discontinuing the job vested on me midway,' he said in the letter.
Senthil also said he felt the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of the nation and that he will be better off outside the role of civil servant to continue working towards making life better for all.
'It simply cannot be business as usual anymore,' he said.
Senthil, who belongs to Tamil Nadu, is a 2009 batch Indian Administrative Service officer. He was made the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada in 2017. He previously served as deputy commissioner in other parts of the state, including Raichur, Karnataka.
The post of deputy commissioner is also known as district collector in some other parts of the country.
Last month, another IAS officer, Kannan Gopinathan, resigned from the service because of restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. Gopinathan held the post of secretary of power, urban development and agriculture departments in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration.
In January, IAS officer Shah Faesal, who had been in the limelight since becoming the first Kashmiri to top the exam in 2009, resigned to protest the 'unabated' killings in Kashmir and the marginalisation of Indian Muslims. He subsequently formed a political party, the J&K Peoples Movement.
