Indian official fined for draining dam to find his missing phone

An Indian official has been suspended for demanding that millions of litres of water be drained from a reservoir in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh so he could retrieve his phone.

Rajesh Vishwas, 32, a food inspector in the state, was suspended after authorities said that he misused his position and wasted millions of litres of water. He dropped his mobile phone in the Kherkatta Dam while visiting with his friends on 21 May, according to reports.

Mr Vishwas has also been asked to pay a fine of Rs 53,092 (£519).

The erring officer claimed that his new phone, a Samsung model worth Rs 100k (£975), contained sensitive government data.

Mr Vishwas, who was posted at Pakhanjur town in Kanker district in the state, dropped his phone into the 10-feet-deep reservoir while taking a selfie. Kanker Collector Priyanka Shukla told The Indian Express: “The official had no authority to drain the water. Hence, he has been suspended.”

The officer told the media that he had purchased his phone two months ago. He claimed he had got verbal permission from the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the Water Resources Department “as it was just a few feet of water”.

He hired a diesel pump and drained around three feet of water from the reservoir over a period of two days, it was reported.

“Since I am a local, some villagers who know swimming dove in to find my phone. They looked for it for two days. When they failed to locate it by Tuesday, they suggested draining the water by a few feet. I said the phone would be damaged by now, but the locals, who share a good rapport with me, insisted that they would find it for me,” he said.

By the time the phone was retrieved, it was too water-logged to work.

A few days ago, the state Irrigation Department sent a letter to Mr Vishwas penalising him for his actions. They called his actions “illegal” and “punishable under Chhattisgarh’s Irrigation Act”.

The SDO has also been asked to furnish his response to Mr Vishwas’s claims that he had given him verbal permission to drain water.

“Vishwas misused his position to look for his mobile phone and without seeking permission from the competent officer evacuated water to the tune of lakhs of litre in this scorching summer season which is unacceptable. For the aforementioned act, he has been placed under suspension with immediate effect,” the suspension order read.

According to an NDTV report, the water he drained was enough to irrigate 1,500 acres of farmland. Not only animals drink from the reservoir, the water is also used by local farmers, even though Mr Vishwas claimed in his video that his phone fell into the stilling basin of the dam’s waste weir and the water was unusable.