The Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, S Sasikanth Senthil, resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) citing personal issues on Friday, August 6.
Senthil, an IAS officer of 2009 batch, hails from Tamil Nadu and is an engineer. In his resignation letter, he said it is unethical for him to continue in the present government where the "fundamental building blocks of diverse democracy are being compromised".
Senthil said he strongly feels that "the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of the nation and that I would be better off outside the IAS to continue with my work at making life better for all."
He also thanked the people and public representatives of Dakshina Kannada for being extremely kind to him and apologised for his decision. "I owe an apology to them for discontinuing the job vested on me midway," he added.
Although Senthil has not named any particular person or event as a cause for the resignation, he was on leave for the past week.
He has been serving as the district DC since October 2017 and has held many prestigious posts since he was inducted into the service. He previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of Raichur and Chitradurga.
Senthil was posted as the Director of Mines and Geology Department before being transferred as the DC of Dakshina Kannada and was a topper in the 2009 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams. He was ranked 9th at the national level.
In August, an IAS officer from Kerala, Kannan Gopinathan, resigned from the IAS after the central government revoked the special statued granted to Jammu and Kashmir through Article 370. Another IAS officer, Shah Faesal, had resigned in protest in January, citing "unabated killings" in Kashmir among other things.
