Though retired in 1992, he never called off his mission to defend the rights of the marginalised sections. Be it government, Maoists, civil rights organisations, Supreme Court or Planning Commission of India, his services were most sought after when the matters of poor and the issues of rights and the food were at stake.
In a civil service career spanning 35 years, Sanakaran held various important assignments in the central and state governments including principal secretary (social welfare department in Andhra Pradesh), chief secretary of Tripura state, and secretary, ministry of rural development, Government of India.
He was associated with the nationalisation of coal industry in the seventies and with the abolition of bonded labour. He introduced rubber cultivation in Tripura to improve the living standards of the tribals when he was the chief secretary of the state.
His major area of concern was safeguarding the rights of the weaker sections of society, particularly of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Delivering the Jayaprakash Narayan Lecture in Delhi in 2001, he lamented," What is a cause for serious concern is not only the present misery but the diminishing hope for the future."
One of his major contributions to the development sector was the introduction of the concept of integrated rural and tribal development. The establishment of Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) in Andhra Pradesh and Integrated Rural Development Programme in other states were the result of his commitment to the cause.
In 2003, the Supreme Court appointed him as the one of the commissioners to oversee the implementation of its judgment on right to food. But, due to some personal reasons he had quit the assignment in 2004. He was one of the 16 members of an expert group set up by the Planning Commission of India, in 2006, to study the developmental challenges in the extremist affected regions of the country.
Sankaran was the convener of the Committee of the Concerned Citizens, an independent group of persons constituted to mitigate the sufferings of people consequent to the socio-political upheavals arising from the naxalite movement and the state counter offensive in rural Andhra Pradesh, especially in Telangana.
Sankaran was one of the seven IAS officials kidnapped by then People’s War in 1987 during the NT Rama Rao regime when they had gone to a forest area in Rampachodavaram in East Godavari district to inspect tribal welfare hostels. They were in captivity for 10 days before the state government secured their release by freeing 16 Naxalites as per the demand of the PWG.