Indian official who drained a reservoir to retrieve his phone has been suspended

Say you drop your brand new smartphone into a reservoir while posing for a selfie at a picnic. Would you consider it lost and buy a replacement, or empty the reservoir to retrieve it?

An Indian official who chose the latter option has been suspended. He also faces the fierce attention of the national news media in a drought-prone country water is a precious commodity.

The official, Rajesh Vishwas, 32, was having a picnic with friends in central India on May 21 when he dropped his Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in the Paralkot reservoir in Chhattisgarh state, where he lives. The $1,200 device is a new model and Mr. Vishwas, a government food inspector, apparently decided he should have it back, claiming it had official department records, said NDTVthe Indian television channel.

Initially, some villagers he knew dived into the reservoir for two days in an attempt to retrieve the phone. Mr. Vishwas told The Indian Express newspaper. No luck. So he rented a diesel pump and pumped out about three feet of water in another two days—enough, by some estimates, to irrigate 1,500 acres of farmland.

Mr Vishwas later said he had “verbal permission” from RC Dhivar, an official in the local Water Resources Department, to drain three or four feet of water. Mr Dhivar said this would “actually benefit the farmers”, Mr Vishwas told NDTV.

Attempts to reach both men for comment on Saturday were unsuccessful. Priyanka Shukla, a top local official, said in an interview on Saturday that Mr. Vishwas was not authorized to drain the water.

Whatever the scheme was, it failed.

By the time Mr. Vish recovered his phone this past week, it was unusable, according to reports in Indian news media. And after news of his surgery made headlines across the country, he was temporarily removed from his position for “abusing his position.”

As for Mr Dhivar, officials said they had asked him to explain his position on the delivery in writing within two days. He ultimately risks disciplinary action.

The incident drew criticism from some prominent pundits and politicians, including Raman Singh, a former chief minister of Chhattisgarh state.

“Nowadays in the scorching heat, people depend on tankers, there is not even a provision for drinking water,” said Singh, a leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party, who is in the opposition in the state. wrote on Twitter on Friday. At the same time, he added, while the water had been pumped out in an attempt to retrieve Mr. Vishwas’s phone, “one and a half thousand hectares of land could have been irrigated.”

India, one of the most water-poor countries in the world, has experienced several major heat waves and droughts in recent years. They are vivid reminders of how extremely vulnerable the country is suffering from the effects of global warming.

Mr Vishwas told The Indian Express that news reports of his phone collection operation were greatly exaggerated. He also said that the Paralkot Reservoir was not used for irrigation.

But Ms. Shukla, a district magistrate in the area, said local farmers did rely on it to irrigate their fields.

“He will face consequences for draining the water, and this will not be tolerated,” she added.