India Official Drains Entire Dam To Retrieve Phone

[Yithian]

India official drains entire dam to retrieve phone​

By Mattea Bubalo
BBC News

It took three days to pump millions of litres of water out of the dam, after Rajesh Vishwas dropped the device while taking a selfie.

By the time it was found, the phone was too water-logged to work.

Mr Vishwas claimed it contained sensitive government data and needed retrieving, but he has been accused of misusing his position.

The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about $1,200 (100,000 rupees), into Kherkatta Dam, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Sunday.

After local divers failed to find it, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Mr Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in Indian media.

He said he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".

The pump ran for several days, emptying out roughly two million litres (440,000 gallons) of water - reportedly enough to irrigate 6 sq km (600 hectares) of farmland.

His mission was stopped when another official, from the water resource department, arrived following a complaint.

"He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource and it cannot be wasted like this," Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told The National newspaper.

Mr Vishwas has denied misusing his position, and said that the water he drained was from the overflow section of the dam and "not in usable condition".

Additional Comment At Link:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65726193

 

[Spookdaddy]

Breaking news:

Indian government official commandeers entire state's rice reserve to dry out phone.

Because - you know - that definitely works.

 

[brownmane]

No sensitive government data should be on anyone's phone. But I do find his explanation suspect.

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

Might have had a few girls' phone numbers on it that he didn't want to lose?
Or some texts that he didn't want to be made public?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Might have had a few girls' phone numbers on it that he didn't want to lose?
Or some texts that he didn't want to be made public?

But when the phone is found, all will be revealed.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I think it’s worth noting that although some reports imply that the ‘Kherkatta Reservoir’ was drained - for example:

The Kherkatta reservoir in Chhattisgarh, India, was drained after a government official ordered it be done to retrieve his phone… New York Post

…it is apparent from images on local news sources that the locus is actually the area downstream of a main spillway from the reservoir; an auxiliary part of the whole, rather than the whole.

Reservoirs have an auxiliary spillway, which can be used to take over from the main spillway and stop it feeding the area downstream of it. It looks like there is a smaller reservoir in this downstream section which is normally fed by and part of the main spillway – and this seems to be the thing that has been drained.

(There's also a bit of confused reporting - which may not help - based on random, and seemingly common, swapping of the words 'dam' and 'reservoir'. The former is the structure that creates and regulates the latter. You use a dam to regulate the reservoir behind it, and the outflow in front of it - you don't 'drain a dam', but you can use the dam to drain a reservoir.)

Don't get me wrong - it's still millions of gallons of water, and still utterly, utterly bonkers. But there's no way that this was drained in three days:

 

[ramonmercado]

He's been fined 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) so that's ok then.

An Indian official who made headlines after he drained a dam to retrieve his phone has been fined by the government.

Rajesh Vishwas has been ordered to pay 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) for pumping out millions of litres of water without seeking permission from authorities. He had dropped the device while taking a selfie and claimed it needed retrieving as it contained sensitive government data. But he has been accused of misusing his position.

The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about 100,000 rupees, into Kherkatta Dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last week. After local divers couldn't find the phone, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Mr Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in the media. The pump ran for several days, emptying out thousands of litres of water, but by the time the phone was found, it was too waterlogged to work.

At the time, Mr Vishwas had told the media that he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65762503

 

[brownmane]

He's been fined 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) so that's ok then.

An Indian official who made headlines after he drained a dam to retrieve his phone has been fined by the government.

Rajesh Vishwas has been ordered to pay 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) for pumping out millions of litres of water without seeking permission from authorities. He had dropped the device while taking a selfie and claimed it needed retrieving as it contained sensitive government data. But he has been accused of misusing his position.

The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about 100,000 rupees, into Kherkatta Dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last week. After local divers couldn't find the phone, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Mr Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in the media. The pump ran for several days, emptying out thousands of litres of water, but by the time the phone was found, it was too waterlogged to work.

At the time, Mr Vishwas had told the media that he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65762503

His fine was less than the price of his phone.

And can the writer of the article be more consistent with the facts?

"for pumping out millions of litres of water without seeking permission from authorities...The pump ran for several days, emptying out thousands of litres of water, but by the time the phone was found, it was too waterlogged to work."

Unless the wording should have been "emptying out thousands of litres of water per day".