An Indian official who made headlines after he drained a dam to retrieve his phone has been fined by the government. Rajesh Vishwas has been ordered to pay 53,092 rupees ($642) for pumping out millions of liters of water without seeking permission from authorities. He had dropped the device while taking a selfie and claimed it needed retrieving as it contained sensitive government data.
But he has been accused of misusing his position. The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about 100,000 rupees ($1,200), into Kherkatta Dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last week. After local divers couldn't find the phone, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in the media. The pump ran for several days, emptying out thousands of litres of water, but by the time the phone was found, it was too waterlogged to work.
At the time, Vishwas had told the media
that he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water
into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact
benefit the farmers who would have more water".
But that was all of load of rubbish. Authorities have suspended Vishwas from his post over the incident, and the state irrigation department sent him a letter penalizing him for his actions. The letter stated that Vishwas had wasted 4.1 million liters of water for his "personal interest" and that he had to pay for the water as well as a penalty for "evacuating water without permission". It added that his action was "illegal" and "punishable under Chhattisgarh's Irrigation Act".
When first reported, the incident had triggered outrage in the country. Many politicians criticized the official's actions and said that the water could have been put to better use in a country where several regions face water shortages, especially in the scorching summer months.
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