NEW DELHI: The Indian government fined an Indian official who made headlines when he drained a dam to get his lost phone.
According to the BBC, Rajesh Vishwas was directed to pay 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) for draining millions of litres of water without taking permission from concerned authorities.
He claimed that the device, which he had fallen while taking a selfie, needed to be recovered since it contained private information from the government. However, he has been charged with misuse of his authority. Last week, the food inspector lost his Samsung phone, worth approximately 100,000 rupees, in the Kherkatta Dam in the Chhattisgarh state of central India.
In a video statement reported on the media, Vishwas claimed that he paid for a diesel pump after local divers failed to locate the phone. The pump operated for several days, expelling millions of litres of water, but by the time the phone was discovered, it had become too wet to function.
At that time, Vishwas had informed the media he received verbal approval from an official to drain “some water into a nearby canal,” adding that the official had claimed it “would benefit the farmers who would have more water.”
However, the concerned authorities suspended Vishwas from his office over the incident. The state Department of Irrigation sent him a letter fining him for his deeds earlier. The BBC has witnessed a copy of the letter.
The letter stated that Vishwas, for his interest, had wasted 4.1 million liters of water. Therefore, he had to pay for the water and a penalty of 10,000 rupees for ” draining water without permission”.
It further said that his action was punishable and illegal per Chhattisgarh’s Irrigation Act.
When it first surfaced, the incident triggered outrage in India. Several politicians criticized his actions and said that the water could have been used for better purposes in a country where many regions are dealing with water shortages, especially in the scorching summer months.
