Indian Government Official Suspended over Dam Drainage to Retrieve Phone

Indian authorities have ordered the suspension of a government official after he ordered a dam to be emptied so he could retrieve his phone, the Guardian reported.

The newspaper said that Rajesh Vishwas dropped his phone in the dam while taking a selfie, adding that he ordered the dam to be drained of water, given that his phone contained sensitive government data that must be retrieved..

The incident took place at the Kharkata Dam in the state of Chhattisgarh in central India.

After it took 3 days to empty the dam of the water stored inside it, Vishwas, who works for the Food Inspectorate, found that his phone was broken and could not work again after it was flooded for a long time..

In the aftermath, Vishwas was suspended from work, after he was accused of misusing his position.

Vishwas said in a statement reported by Indian media that the pump was brought in after local divers failed to find the phone..

He indicated that he had obtained verbal permission from an official to drain “some water into a nearby aqueduct,” explaining that the official said that this “will actually benefit the farmers who will get more water.”“.

Sources revealed that nearly two million liters of water were emptied – enough to irrigate 6 square kilometers (600 hectares) of agricultural land..

Vishwas denied abusing his position and said that the drained water was from the overflow part of the dam.