A government official in India has been suspended after he ordered a whole tank to be drained so he could retrieve his phone he dropped within the water while taking a selfie.
Rajesh Vishwas, Ethics Inspector according to the BBC.
Vishwas claimed the phone contained sensitive government information and had sent local divers to help find it, Indian news outlets reported.
When the divers failed to find the phone, he paid to have a diesel pump brought in to remove the water, Vishwas told local media.
The food inspector claimed he had verbal permission from the official to flush “some water right into a nearby canal”. He said he was told the move “would actually profit farmers who would have more water.”
For 3 days, the pumps worked and drained 440,000 gallons of water – which is reportedly enough to irrigate nearly 1,500 acres of farmland.
When the phone was finally found, it didn’t even work.
Vishwas was caught after a water resources official responded to a grievance. He was then suspended from his government position.
“He has been suspended pending an investigation. Water is a necessary resource and can’t be wasted like this,” Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told The National newspaper.
Vish was denied that he had abused his position. He said the water he drained got here from the overflow section of the dam and was “unusable”.
The officials’ actions sparked outrage amongst Indian politicians.
“While people rely on cisterns for water supply in hot summers, an officer drained 41 lakh liters that could possibly be used to irrigate 1,500 acres of land,” the deputy leader of the opposition BJP party tweeted.