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Journalism of Courage
Ten days after a food inspector allegedly drained 41 lakh liters of water from a reservoir in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district, apparently to retrieve a cellphone he had dropped in water while clicking a selfie, an FIR was registered on Wednesday against him, a sub-divisional officer (SDO), and a sub-engineer of the water department.,
While the food inspector — Rajesh Vishwas, 32 — was suspended last week, soon after the incident came to light, the department on Wednesday suspended the SDO, R L Dhiwar, who had allegedly given Vishwas oral permission to drain out the water.
Dhiwar had told his seniors that no such permission was given, and that Vishwas is to be entirely blamed for the incident.
The two, along with Chotelal Dhruv, a sub-engineer from the water resources department, were booked under IPC Sections 430 (mischief by injury to works of irrigation or by wrongfully diverting water) and 34 (common intention).
Local authorities said overflowing water from the dam is collected in the reservoir and is meant for emergency purposes.
According to the FIR, Vishwas had gone for a picnic with his friends to Paralkot reservoir, next to Paralkot dam in Pakhanjur town of Kanker district, on May 21 and dropped his phone in the water while clicking a selfie. To retrieve it, he allegedly took oral permission from Dhiwar to drain three feet of water from the 10-foot-deep reservoir.
On May 26, Vishwas was suspended and asked to pay Rs 53,092 by the water resources department to recover the cost of water wasted, besides a fine. Taking an estimate of Rs 10.50 per cubic water drained, the notice asked him to pay Rs 43,092 for the water, and an additional Rs 10,000 fine.
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