Chhattisgarh State Indian official drains entire dam to recover lost cell phone
After his mobile phone fell into India’s Kherkatta reservoir, food inspector Rajesh Vishwas ordered the water tank to be emptied. He pumped millions of liters of water. Other politicians reacted with outrage.
Food inspector Rajesh Vishwas lost his mobile phone while on vacation in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The politician had gone for a swim at the Kherkatta dam with friends. As he wanted to take a selfie, the Samsung phone slipped from his hand and fell into the infinity pool. After divers unsuccessfully searched the 15-foot-deep lake for the device, Vishwas decided to take the most dramatic step possible in his situation: he had the entire dam drained.
“The locals tried to find it, but were unsuccessful. They told me they could find it safely if the water was two to three feet shallower,” the newspaper quotes.The National” the food inspector. He allegedly received verbal permission from an official to pump the water. The official allowed him to “empty water into a nearby canal” and told him that doing so would “benefit in reality to farmers, who would then benefit from it.” have more “have water”.
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As the BBC reported that the politician paid for the subsequent installation of the two diesel pumps himself. The two devices operated for four days and pumped a total of two million liters of water. When an official from the Water Resources Department arrived, Vishwas had to call off his action. According to media reports, he still found his phone. However, the device has since broken down due to water damage.
According to media reports, the politician claimed that the device contained sensitive government data. He also justified himself by saying that the water came from the overflow section of the dam and was “not in a condition to be used”. Other politicians have accused him of abusing his high-ranking position. The national vice-president of the opposition BJP tweeted: “When people depend on water tankers for their water supply during scorching summers, the official dumped thousands of liters that could have been used for water. ‘irrigation.”
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Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told The National that there was no permission for the pumping: “If the water had been released in the last three days, the department should have known about it,” she explains. Vishwas has been suspended pending investigation. “Water is a vital resource and should not be wasted in this way,” she added.
Sources:BBC“The National“