An Indian government official has been suspended after resorting to extraordinary measures in his quest to recover a lost phone.
Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, accidentally dropped his Samsung phone, valued at around $1,200 (100,000 rupees), into the Kherkatta Dam while attempting to take a selfie.
Determined to retrieve the device, Vishwas took it upon himself to drain the reservoir, a painstaking process that lasted three days and required pumping millions of liters of water.
Unfortunately, the phone was found to be irreparably waterlogged when retrieved.
Allegations of misusing his position have been leveled against Vishwas, who claimed that the phone contained sensitive government data that necessitated its retrieval.
Initially, he sought the assistance of local divers, but their efforts proved fruitless. Undeterred, Vishwas personally financed the use of a diesel pump, citing verbal permission from an official to drain “some water into a nearby canal.”
According to him, the official contended that this action would ultimately benefit local farmers by providing them with additional water.
Over the course of several days, the pump tirelessly operated, draining an estimated two million liters (440,000 gallons) of water from the dam.
The volume of water is reportedly sufficient to irrigate an area of approximately 6 square kilometers (600 hectares) of farmland.
However, Vishwas’s audacious endeavor came to an abrupt halt when another official from the water resource department intervened following a complaint.
Priyanka Shukla, an official from Kanker district, commented, “He has been suspended pending an inquiry. Water is an indispensable resource, and it cannot be squandered in such a manner.”
He stressed that the severity of the situation necessitated the suspension, underscoring the importance of responsible water management.
Vishwas, however, vehemently denied any wrongdoing, asserting that the water he drained originated from the dam’s overflow section and was “not in usable condition.”
Despite his protestations, politicians have criticized his actions, with the national Vice-President of the opposition party BJP expressing dismay via a tweet.
He lamented that “while people suffer from water shortages and rely on tankers during scorching summers, the officer in question drained a staggering 41 lakh liters, which could have been used to irrigate 1,500 acres of land.”
