Chhattisgarh: 21 Lakh Litres of Water Pumped Out After Officer’s Phone Fell Into Reservoir While Taking Selfie

The Chhattisgarh government has suspended a government official after he pumped out 21 lakh liters of water from a reservoir for nearly three days to recover his expensive mobile phone, which fell into it.

According to media reports, Rajesh Vishwas, food officer of Koilibeda block of Kanker district, was spending holidays at Kherkatta Dam when his phone allegedly fell into the dam. The cost of his device is around one lakh rupees.

Having lost his phone, Vishwas panicked and reached out to the irrigation department to retrieve the device. Eventually, a 30-horsepower pump was deployed to pump out and waste some 2.1 million liters of water that could otherwise have been used to irrigate more than 1,500 acres of farmland.

Media reports said that the phone was recovered three days later after 41,104 cubic meters of water was released.

This process continued for three days, but after the complaint, an officer of the Irrigation and Water Resources Department reached the spot and got it stopped.

In his defence, the now-suspended officer Biswas said the phone fell from his hand while taking a selfie and it was important for him to retrieve the device as it contained official government data.

He further said that an official of the water resources department told him that the water is not used for any purpose, so he got some water taken out of it, ndtv informed of.