Former Kozhikode District Collector Prasanth Nair was on Monday appointed the private secretary to Minister of State for Tourism (Independent Charge) KJ Alphons, a Department of Training and Personnel circular said. Nair, an Indian Administrative Services officer, has been appointed to the post for a period of five years.

The Department of Personnel and Training circular said that Nair should be immediately relieved of his duties of a secretary in Kerala’s higher education department so that he could take up his new position at the Centre.

Nair earned public acclaim when he started several initiatives in Kozhikode during his term as the collector, The Indian Express reported. He earned the moniker of “Collector Bro”, and even ran his own Facebook page, which has nearly 2.5 lakh likes.

Among Nair’s programmes was Operation Sulaimani, a participatory project to address hunger in urban areas, Tere Mere Beach Mein, a project to tackle waste management at Kozhikode beach, and Yo Appooppa, an initiative to improve the quality of life of the elderly in the district.

Nair was transferred from his post as Kozhikode collector to the Kerala higher education department as a secretary earlier this year. But he went on leave.