Current Events > BBC: Indian official empties dam to retrieve lost phone after taking selfie

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65726193

A government official in India has been suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained to retrieve his phone.
It took three days to pump millions of litres of water out of the dam, after Rajesh Vishwas dropped the device while taking a selfie.
By the time it was found, the phone was too water-logged to work.
Mr Vishwas claimed it contained sensitive government data and needed retrieving, but he has been accused of misusing his position.
The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about $1,200 (100,000 rupees), into Kherkatta Dam, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Sunday.
After local divers failed to find it, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Mr Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in Indian media.
He said he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".
The pump ran for several days, emptying out roughly two million litres (440,000 gallons) of water - reportedly enough to irrigate 6 sq km (600 hectares) of farmland.
His mission was stopped when another official, from the water resource department, arrived following a complaint.
"He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource and it cannot be wasted like this," Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told The National newspaper.
Mr Vishwas has denied misusing his position, and said that the water he drained was from the overflow section of the dam and "not in usable condition".
But his actions have drawn criticism from politicians, with the state's opposition BJP party's national vice-president tweeting: "When people are depending upon tankers for water facility in in scorching summers, the officer has drained 41 lakh litres which could have been used for irrigation purpose for 1,500 acres of land."

A food inspector...

I'm probably being ignorant but you would think living in the #1 tech outsourcing region in the entire world, the guy would have some consideration to just take the loss, load his backup info to a new phone, and move on...not drain an entire fucking reservoir for an instantly dead Samsung model that is either or soon will be past-gen anyway.

Jagr_68 posted...

I'm probably being ignorant but you would think living in the #1 tech outsourcing region in the entire world, the guy would have some consideration to just take the loss, load his backup info to a new phone, and move on...not drain an entire fucking reservoir for an instantly dead Samsung model that is either or soon will be past-gen anyway.

Why would a government official desperately need a provate storage device back

Every food inspector in India is gonna be like

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/4/AAEqD0AAEg90.jpg

Dude is working on a whole other level of Big Brain Thinking.

What wouldnt he drain the dam for, if he dropped his lunch would he have done the same thing?

That's almost 2/3 of an Olympic sized pool

Should just dove in for it like a man

_____Cait posted...

Why would a government official desperately need a provate storage device back

That's where me being ignorant comes in because govt devices, least here in the US require specific authenticity measures to access everything remotely and if property is lost, the device can be disabled as well as software privileges so nothing is actually stored locally.

What's a scuba-diving hacker gonna do with a food inspector's selfies they broke in to lol

If it's not worth swimming in after, just get a new one.

I could see an argument about someone finding it and getting access to sensitive information, but it's probably safer in the water than with him

He probably has something on his phone that he doesn't want other people to find and see.

Cobra1010 posted...

He probably has something on his phone that he doesn't want other people to find and see.

Yeah this.

Even if the phone doesn't work the data could still be retrieved.

David1988 posted...

What wouldnt he drain the dam for, if he dropped his lunch would he have done the same thing?

It basically be like that commercial where the dude drops the skittle into a vat of acid

...only suspended?

Requiem posted...

...only suspended?

Only admins can ban.

Rajesh Vishwas is SUSPENDED