In a bizarre incident, an official in Chhattisgarh drained out water from a dam reservoir for two days in order to find his phone that he dropped into it while taking a selfie. The Officer was later suspended.
The officer identified as Rajesh Vishwas, 32 is a food inspector posted in Pakhanjur town in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district.
Vishwash had gone for a picnic to the Paralkot reservoir with his friends, when he dropped his phone intro the 10-feet deep reservoir next to the dam while capturing a selfie.
The dropped phone, for which the food inspector resorted to undertake such action was a Samsung S23 ultra that costs around Rs 95,000.
Vishwas told that as he is a local, the nearby villagers have acquaintance with him, the villagers dived into the reservoir to search for his phone.
He added that after looking it for two days when they failed to find the phone by Tuesday, they pitched the idea of draining the water from the reservoir, to which the officer said he objected stating that the phone would have damaged already but the villagers as they had good relations with him, insisted they would definitely find the phone for him.
Later, the phone obviously was found in a damaged condition which was handed over to the owner Vishwash.
Vishwash accused the media of exaggerating and said the water in the said reservoir is not used for any irrigation purpose and is used by the visitors for bathing.
District collector Priyanka Shukla said Vishwash had no authority to drain the water and could have been put to the use of villagers and animals amid the scorching heat.
Vishwash’s suspension order read the officer misused his authority to find his phone and took up the action without taking any permission from any concerned official and was suspended with immediate effect.
Vishwash had alleged that he spoke to the local SDO over phone who gave him the verbal permission to drain out the water.
A show cause notice has been issued to the SDO by Collector Sharma.
The matter also reached to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel when former CM and BJP leader Raman Singh took a dig on Baghel writing Under Dau’s (referring to CM Baghel) rule, officers consider the state their own property.
Baghel to which replied the officer has been suspended.