The India government has penalized an official who made headlines after he drained a dam to retrieve his phone.
Rajesh Vishwas was fined 53,092 rupees ($642; £519) for pumping millions of liters of water without obtaining permission from the appropriate authorities.
He claimed that it was important to retrieve the device because it contained private government information after dropping it while taking a selfie.
However, he has been charged with abusing his authority.
The food inspector’s Samsung phone, which is worth about 100,000 rupees, fell into the Kherkatta Dam in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, last week.
Mr. Vishwas stated in a video statement that after local divers failed to locate the phone, he paid to have a diesel pump brought in. The pump ran for several days, expelling thousands of litres of water, but by the time the phone was discovered, it was too soaked to function.
At the time, Mr. Vishwas had told the media he had verbal approval from a official to drain “some water into a nearby canal,” adding that the official had said it “would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water.”
However, as a result of the incident, the authorities suspended Mr. Vishwas from his position. In addition, the state irrigation department recently sent him a letter reprimanding him for his conduct.
It stated that Mr. Vishwas had wasted 41.1 million liters of water (880,000 gallons) for his “personal interest” and that he was required to pay for the water as well as a fine of 10,000 rupees for “evacuating water without permission.”
The statement further stated that his behavior was “illegal” and “punishable under the Chhattisgarh Irrigation Act.”
The incident had angered the people of India when it was first reported. In a nation where several regions experience water shortages, especially during the sweltering summer months, many politicians criticized the official’s actions and claimed that the water could have been used more effectively.
Source-BBC
