India official empties dam to retrieve lost phone
bbc.com
bbc.com
The sheer power the administration wields in a country like India is stuff of the legends. Dictators would envy at having a fraction of this sort of power. They are largely invisible, wield nearly unlimited power. With the stroke of a pen they can bring whole bridges into existence and have them vanish. There are industrialists who have committed suicide out of sheer torture subjected to them by the bureaucracy in India [1].
That is just the power and influence they wield. The money part is another thing that would blow the minds of anybody who isn't familiar with the Indian society. These days in as little as a decade, even the least ranking bureaucrat in the hierarchy can be worth up to $100 million. Their children are known to run think tanks and policy groups all set to shape policy decisions for decades to come.
At this much power and influence, you are pretty much like a king of princely state domain in India.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._G._Siddhartha
This letter detailed the unbearable pressure he was subjected to over the years and the harassment he faced under the "previous" Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) (referred to as DG in the letter).
Suspension doesn't mean getting fired from the job. I guess they serve a 'show cause' notice, which you need to defend in front of a committee(your own colleagues), you get handed a token transfer to some far village location. Then in a year or two you just work your way back.
So basically not much.
It costs 80 crore rupees (or $10 million USD) to contest in local elections to order to become a member of legislative assembly, MLA, (a legislature body at the state level, who elects the chief minister). These contestants distribute money to voters to convince the latter to vote for them. The going rate is about 6000 rupees per voter (say, $75 USD). Voters collect money from both contestants.
Today's 80 crores = 160 Crores ($20M) 5 years later, as these MLAs serve five years. Consider this as a business. To break even, these MLAs to make $20M (or 160 Crores) in five years. How do these politicians make money? By collecting 10 percent commission for any public works contracts in their constituencies (say, building roads/buildings, digging tanks, patching roads, cleaning, even including transfers of public officials). So, one has to bring in $200M worth of public works contracts in his/her constituency. In India, every chief minister of a state (like the governor of a state in the states) is so big on dolls: sending money to people because the latter is 55 years old, or a woman, or unemployed, or poor, or belong to a certain castes. There is no money left in the public coffers, as the taxes they get don't cover these doles, freebies. So, there is no more money left to do any solid public works in their constituencies. In other words, these MLAs are not getting $200M worth of works in their constituencies. (I heard in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the average public works are at $15M for 5 years, so many MLAs are in deep loss). So, what do these politicians do: sand mafia, liquor mafia, drug mafia, mandatory bribes flowing from the bottom to top, bribes for transfers, bribes for reinstating suspensions, bribes for this and that. There is a deep collusion between politicians and bureaucracy, affecting the quality of life of average people in India.
This is the state of Indian politicians and bureaucracy. There is no shame being in suspended, just pay off the right politician to get reinstated.
Maybe the editor of this piece doesn't know what a lakh is: one hundred thousand (of anything).
Other sources mention 21lakh [0] or only 41cusecs [1]
[0] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chhattisgarh-officer-dropped...
[1] https://www.dhakatribune.com/south-asia/2023/05/27/indian-of...
2. Do they have enough water? No, but supposedly an "overflow section" of unpotable water.
3. Did they find the phone?
“ By the time it was found, the phone was too water-logged to work”
The shithole of corruption is unending spiral of extortion.
That being said, he's a government official, so that explains it.
India has the highest selfie related deaths compared to other countries.