An Indian official ordered an entire reservoir drained to find his phone after he dropped it taking
- An Indian official was suspended after he drained an essential reservoir to find his phone.
- Rajesh Vishwas was taking a selfie when he dropped the phone in the water, the BBC reported.
- Workers pumped millions of liters of water out of the Kherkatta Dam in central India.
An Indian official has been suspended after he dropped his smartphone in an essential water reservoir and ordered it to be emptied to retrieve it.
Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, was taking a selfie when he dropped his cell phone into the Kherkatta Dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last weekend, according to BBC News.
It took workers three days to pump millions of liters of water out of the dam after divers initially failed to recover the device.
Vishwas — who told Indian media he paid for a diesel pump to be brought to the dam — claimed the smartphone contained sensitive government information, per the BBC.
While the Samsung phone — worth about $1,200 — was eventually retrieved, it was too waterlogged to work in the end.
The official has since been suspended from his position, the BBC reported, after he was criticized for exploiting his position and wasting water.
In a statement to local media, Vishwas said he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal," according to The Times. The official said it "would, in fact, benefit the farmers, who would have more water," he said.
Priyanka Shukla, Kanker district official who responded to the complaint, told the local newspaper, The National, "He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource, and it cannot be wasted like this."
Vishwas denied "misusing" his position, saying the drained water was from an overflow section of the dam and was not "in usable condition."
The wasted water could have irrigated 1,500 acres of land during the scorching summer, according to The Times of India.
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