Rajesh vishwas

Rajesh Vishwas was on holiday at the Kherkatta Dam in central India when he lost his phone. Mr Vishwas was taking a selfie when his smartphone fell into the water. He called local divers to try to retrieve it. When they failed, he arranged for two powerful pumps to be run for three days to empty out 2 million litres of water, enough to irrigate 600 hectares of farmland. He only stopped when an official from the irrigation and water resource department visited the site after a complaint. Mr Vishwas said the phone — which the BBC reported was a Samsung — had official data stored on it, but after three days in water it was unusable. An official from the district of Kanker, in Chhatisgarh, told the Times of India Mr Vishwas did not have official permission to drain the dam, despite reportedly having verbal permission. "Vishwas has been suspended with immediate effect for misusing his position by draining lakhs of litres of water from the waterbody in summer's heat, to find his mobile phone, which is not acceptable," the official was quoted as saying. "He pumped out water without seeking formal permission." ABC/Wires

How bad was your week? Well, fear not. Rajesh Vishwas is here to make you feel better. The Indian government official was recently suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained so he could retrieve his mobile phone, which had fallen in when he tried to take a selfie while picnicking with friends. Taking the old “but I need it for work” excuse to whole new levels, Vishwas, a food inspector, claimed his Samsung mobile held sensitive government data and therefore had to be found. It took three days to pump two million litres of water out of the reservoir, enough to irrigate more than 1,000 acres of farmland in a country suffering from water scarcity. The phone was found but was, unsurprisingly, waterlogged and unusable. The entire scenario is undoubtedly farcical. But there are also easy lessons from this victory in the abuse-of-power stakes that should apply to anyone in a position of authority facing a management decision. Bad behaviour may start slowly but over time it erodes trust inside organisations, spurs others to follow the same path and can have serious consequences Lapses in judgment and a sheer lack of integrity fly in the face of the most basic expectations of what it means to be a leader. There is a fundamental requirement to not be selfish, to think of others and to try your very best to do no harm – for example, by depriving a scorching country of a much-needed resource or by throwing a party in the heart of government when your nation is under pandemic...

Load Error He Dropped His New Phone in a Dam Rajesh Vishwas found himself in a predicament when he accidentally dropped his phone into the Kherkatta Dam while taking a selfie. In a state of panic, he didn't know what to do, so he claimed that the phone contained sensitive government data and needed to be recovered. So he hired some local divers to get his fallen phone. However, it was of no use. His Initial Attempts to Retrieve the Phone Failed When the initial attempt to retrieve the phone failed, Vishwas went a step further. He arranged for two powerful pumps to be operated continuously for three days, resulting in the drainage of 2 million liters of water. He claimed that he had received verbal permission from an official who believed that this action would benefit local farmers by providing them with more water. Vishwas had said, “I called up the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the Water Resources Department (RC Dhivar), who provided permission as it was only a few feet of water. I was terribly disappointed as I dropped the phone into the reservoir. I acquired the phone just two months ago." Vishwas can be seen relaxing under a red umbrella near the diesel pumps running to empty the reservoir in social media videos that went viral. He Drained 2 Million Liters of Water Vishwas further said, "Over two days, I drained about three feet of water from the reservoir starting on Tuesday night after paying Rs 7,500 ($90) for a diesel pump." The volume drained was sufficient to ...

By Press Trust of India: Police on Wednesday lodged an FIR against three government officials, including a food inspector, for allegedly draining out 41 lakh litres of water from a reservoir's waste weir to retrieve a mobile phone in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district last week, while the state administration suspended one of them for negligence in the latest action related to the episode. The first information report (FIR) was lodged against food inspector Rajesh Vishwas, Sub-Divisional Officer of Pakhanjore RL Dhivar and Sub-Engineer Chhotelal Dhruv, both from the water resources department, at the Pakhanjore police station based on a complaint of nayab tehsildar (revenue official) of the area, a police official said. Vishwas allegedly pumped out and wasted water stored in the spillway basin of the waste weir, while the two water resources department (WRD) officials supported him in his unauthorised act, he said. ALSO READ | They were booked under sections 430 (mischief by injury to works of irrigation or by wrongfully diverting water) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC, the official said, adding further investigation was underway. Vishwas and Dhivar, who were posted in the Pakhanjore area of the district, have been suspended in the matter with the latter facing the action on Wednesday. The food inspector was suspended last week. As per the FIR, the nayab tehsildar in his complaint stated that Vishwas (33) along with his friends had gone to the Paralkot reservoir in Kherke...

An Indian official has been suspended from his job for wasting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water after ordering a reservoir drained in a bid to find his cellphone. Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector with the Chhattisgarh state government, dropped his phone in the Paralkot reservoir — a scenic spot in central India — last weekend as he tried to take a selfie. He first sent divers into the reservoir, but when they failed to find his $1,200 Samsung phone, he ordered the entire reservoir drained. An image from video shared widely on social media shows the water being pumped out of Paralkot reservoir in central India's Chhattisgarh state, on the orders of state official Rajesh Vishwas, who dropped his phone into the body of water. It took diesel-run pumps more than three days to drain the roughly 530,000 gallons of water from the reservoir. They found his phone at the bottom, but to Vishwas' disappointment, it had stopped working. The officer claimed his phone contained sensitive government information and that he had permission to drain the reservoir. But the state government said no such permission was granted and accused him of misusing his position and wasting fresh water at a time when it's sorely needed. Parts of north and central India are currently facing a heat wave, resulting in water shortages for millions of people. The water Vishwas ordered pumped out of the reservoir would have been used for irrigating farm fields. Seeking to defend himself, Vishwas claimed ...

Spillway of Paralkot Reservoir during dry spell. Image dated October 16, 2021. Credit - KeenHopper, CC SA 4.0. Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, was suspended after he drained an essential reservoir to find his smartphone. On May 21, reports the So Mr. Vishwas had a big decision to make – should he just go and buy a replacement phone – or drain the reservoir? Apparently, he decided that he had to have it back and claimed that it had official departmental data stored on it, According to In the three days of pumping the water out of the dam, two million liters (440,000 gallons) of water dropped the water level by three feet, and by some estimates, enough water was released to irrigate 600 hectares (1,500 acres) of farmland. To cover his deed, Mr. Vishwas later claimed he had received “oral permission” from R.C. Dhivar, an official at the local Water Resources Department, to drain three or four feet of water. Mr. Vishwas even told NDTV that Mr. Dhivar said that doing so, “it would in fact benefit the farmers.” However, whatever the arrangement was, it backfired. “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. Vishwas denied “misusing” his position, saying the drained water was from an overflow section of the dam and was not “in usable condition.” But the Karen Graham is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for environmental news. Karen's view of w...

When Ocala, Fla., police officers questioned 37-year-old Daniel Robert Dinkins about a nearby burglary on May 13, he responded, “That may have been me.” Earlier, officers had been called to a home where someone had thrown a brick through a window where a baby was sleeping inside, then left a book on the front porch. Dinkins said he wanted to swim in the neighbors’ backyard pool and “wanted to share the book with them,” Ocala News reported. He also told police he was a “time traveler” and was trying to “save the baby from something way in the future when the child is much older.” Strangely, Dinkins said he wasn’t aware there was a baby sleeping inside. He faces a felony burglary charge. Government in action A central India food inspector, Rajesh Vishwas, lost more than his phone on May 21, NBC News reported. While snapping a vacation selfie at Kherkatta Dam, Vishwas dropped his phone into the water. According to him, his device contained sensitive governmental information, so he ordered the reservoir to be drained. Vishwas said he got permission from R.C. Dhivar, a local water resources official, but Dhivar argued that he’d given permission to drain only 3 or 4 feet of water. Instead, “They had emptied the water up to 10 feet.” It took three days to drain the 530,000 gallons of water, but in the end, it was all for naught: Vishwas’ phone was unusable. As was he: He was suspended from his job pending an investigation. That rule doesn’t apply to me An unnamed woman in Tacoma,...

By Dharmendar Mahapatra: Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector from Chhattisgarh who drained water from a reservoir to retrieve his phone has been asked to pay Rs 53,092 by the Water Resources Department as a fine. In a letter issued by the Water Resources Department, he has been asked to pay a fine for wasting the water in the reservoir. "The water filled in the diesel cistern has been wasted by taking it out for extraction, which is illegal and comes under the category of punishment under the clauses contained in the Irrigation Act," the letter read. A panicked Vishwas reached out to the Irrigation Department and discussed ways to retrieve his phone. Eventually, a 30-horsepower pump was deployed to drain the reservoir's water, resulting in the discharge of the stored water. ALSO READ | Twenty-one lakh litres of water was drained in a day. And the 'mission mobile khojo' went on for a full three days. He did recover his phone, which he claimed had "important contacts", but it was no longer in working condition. Vishwas later justified his action saying the water was unusable for irrigation and he had got permission from a senior official. In a conversation with India Today, the official also said that the

Recommended • Heatwave warning issued for Delhi after temperature soars above 45C • What is the 1.5C target? And how does it affect the climate crisis? • Heat wave in Asia made 30 times more likely because of climate change, scientists say While Mr Vishwas said he had verbal permission to drain “some water” from the dam, a district official said he did not have formal consent to go ahead with it. Defending the move, Mr Vishwas said farmers would “benefit” from more water. “Locals told me they can surely find it if the water was two-three feet shallower,” Mr Vishwas was quoted as saying by NDTV. “I called the [Sub Divisional Officer] and requested him to allow me to drain some water into the nearby canal if there was no problem in doing so. He said it was not an issue if three-four feet deep water was drained, and would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water.” Recommended • Cyclone Mocha: ‘At least a hundred’ feared dead as rains lash Myanmar, Bangladesh, India • China braces for record-breaking temperatures as major cities issue heat advisories Later on Friday, Kanker district’s magistrate Priyanka Shukla said Mr Vishwas was suspended for abuse of his position.