A government official in central India has been suspended after he ordered the draining of more than 2 million liters of water from a reservoir to retrieve a smartphone he dropped while snapping a selfie, according to official announcements and local media.
Food inspector Rajesh Vishwas was on vacation near the Kherkatta dam in India’s central state Chhattisgarh when he dropped his Samsung phone in the reservoir on May 21, The Indian Express newspaper reported.
Vishwas was suspended for draining “water from Paralkot reservoir located in Pakhanjur of Kanker,” according to Chhattisgarh’s public relations office.
“He has been suspended by Collector Dr. Priyanka Shukla with immediate effect due to his act contrary to the provisions of the Civil Services Rules, 1966.”
The water — enough to irrigate at least 1,500 acres of land during India’s scorching summer — was drained over three days starting on May 22, according to Dr. Raman Singh, the former Chhattisgarh State chief minister.
Vishwas defended himself in a video posted to The Indian Express website and said the issue had been “exaggerated.”
“When I took it out, I took the water and put it back in the reservoir,”
Vishwas needed his phone back because it contained official departmental data, according to NDTV.
Vishwas also said that he had received “oral permission” from R.C. Dhivar, a local Water Resources Department official, to drain three or four feet of water, he told Indian television network NDTV
“Permission to empty the water up to five feet was given orally,” Dhivar told Indian network ETV, “but they had emptied the water up to ten feet.”
NBC reached out to Chhattisgarh’s Controller Food and Drugs Administration for comment, but did not receive a response.
The phone was eventually retrieved, but after three days in deep water, it was rendered unusable, according to the National News.
Vishwas was widely criticized on social media for wasting water resources, especially as India grapples with climate change and heat waves.
Former Chhattisgarh State chief minister Singh voiced his concerns on Twitter, “Today in the scorching heat people are dependent on tankers, there is no arrangement for even drinking water,” he wrote.
“Under the dictatorship by Dau (rich person) officials have considered the state as their own ancestral fiefdom,” Singh wrote.
Mithil Aggarwal contributed.