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India official suspended after draining reservoir to retrieve lost phone
[NY Post] A government official in India has been suspended after he ordered an entire reservoir be drained so he could retrieve his phone that he had dropped in the water while snapping a selfie.

Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, dropped his $1,200 Samsung phone into Kherkatta Dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on Sunday, according to the BBC.

Vishwas claimed that the phone held sensitive government information and deployed local divers to help find it, Indian news outlets reported.

When the divers failed to find the phone, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in to remove the water, Vishwas is quoted as saying to local media.

The food inspector claimed he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal." He said that he was told the move "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".

For three days, the pumps ran and emptied 440,000 gallons of water — which is reportedly enough to irrigate nearly 1500 acres of farmland.

In #Chhattisgarh, an officer's I-phone fell into a dam reservoir. Two pumps of 30 horsepower, ran 24 hrs, and pumped out-hold your breath- 21 lakh litres of #water, this water could have irrigated 1,500 acres of land, & this is when "there is severe shortage of water i the area ! pic.twitter.com/vBSol7EafS

— Ramandeep Singh Mann (@ramanmann1974) May 26, 2023

Posted by: Frank G 2023-05-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=668353