Thiruvanathapuram:

Kerala IAS officer N Prashanth aka 'Collector Bro', who has been suspended on disciplinary grounds after he publicly criticised a senior officer, has over 3 lakh followers on Facebook and 50,000 on Instagram. His social media activity had earlier raised politicians' eyebrows, but the bureaucrat has insisted that social media is the best platform to reach the people.

Ironically, it is his social media criticism of a senior officer that landed him in trouble and led to the government action against him. The 2007-batch IAS officer described Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak as a psychopath and accused him of orchestrating baseless news reports against him. Following the state government's action, the officer has said he is a "whistleblower". He also said that being an IAS officer was not his sole ambition and he had other interests.

Who Is 'Collector Bro'?

N Prashanth is from Thalassery in Kerala's Kannur district. He studied at Loyola School and Government Law College in Thiruvanathapuram. He went on to complete a degree in banking law before joining IAS in 2007. After serving multiple roles, he was appointed Kozhikode district collector in 2015. It was during this stint that he was described as 'Collector Bro' for his social media interactions with people and his unique initiatives. One such initiative that grabbed attention was a Facebook message in which he asked people for help to clean a 14-acre pond. He promised the volunteers a plate of...

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