Rajesh Vishwas, a local food inspector, had dropped his phone while taking a selfie. Since the phone was a Samsung S23 Ultra worth Rs 95,000 (around $1200) he felt obliged to drain the reservoir to retrieve it. Not such a smart move to waste millions of litres of water during a heatwave, as he soon found out. Not sure why he wasn’t fired, as he lied about getting permission, but the news story said he was only suspended.
Source: CNN
A government official in India who drained a reservoir to retrieve a phone he dropped while taking a selfie has been suspended from his job.
More than 2 million liters of water were pumped out of the Paralkot reservoir, over a period of four days, in an effort to retrieve the Samsung handset belonging to Rajesh Vishwas, a local food inspector.
Vishwas had been out with friends last Sunday afternoon when it slipped from his grasp at the scenic spot in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
In a video statement shared by the Indian Express, Vishwas said he rented a diesel pump to “drain some water into a nearby canal” in an effort to retrieve the phone and that he did this after asking for permission from a sub-divisional officer.
His version of events is at odds with that of his employer, who suspended him on the grounds of misusing his position – noting he had wasted millions of liters of water at a time of severe heat.
