New Delhi: Two Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Khandwa District Collector Rishav Gupta and District Panchayat CEO Dr Nagarjun B. Gowda, found themselves at the centre of an unusual controversy Monday, as they were accused of using AI-generated images and fake data to secure a prestigious presidential award.
“Where the BJP government should be teaching our children the proper use of AI, it is instead using AI itself for corruption,” Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari posted on X Monday. “In Khandwa, officials of the BJP government, in the name of water conservation, used AI to turn two-foot pits into wells and uploaded AI-generated images of various development works across the region on the portal. Based on these very images, they even received an award from the Honorable President.”
In actuality, there were only empty grounds and fields at the spot, he added. “In BJP rule, corruption has also become smart,” Patwari said.
जहाँ भाजपा सरकार को हमारे बच्चों को AI का सदुपयोग सिखाना चाहिए, वहीं वह खुद AI से भ्रष्टाचार कर रही है।
खंडवा में भाजपा सरकार के अधिकारियों ने जल संरक्षण के नाम पर दो फीट के गड्ढों को AI से कुआँ बना दिया और पूरे क्षेत्र में तरह तरह के विकास कार्यों की AI से बनाई गई तस्वीरें… pic.twitter.com/ya4gLLTUmf
— Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari (@jitupatwari) December 29, 2025
It was not the Congress leader alone, however. It was, in fact, a report in Dainik Bhaskar that first made the claim that the construction of water harvesting systems was more of paperwork with no ground reality. A deluge of social media allegations ensued.
However, the controversy is a fake one, the IAS officers have now claimed.
Speaking to ThePrint, Gowda, a 2019-batch IAS officer, said “the controversy is a truly accidental, but unfortunate one”.
In order to win the award under the Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari (water accumulation, public participation) initiative, the Khandwa administration, like different contenders, had to submit a dossier containing data and photographic evidence of the development projects undertaken by them. However, Dainik Bhaskar showed that images submitted by the Khandwa administration carried AI-generated watermarks, thus betraying that they were fake.
“Unfortunately, this news is fake because of a technical confusion,” Gowda said. “The media picked up the report from the portal ‘Catch The Rain’, which is only meant for information, education and communication (IEC) purposes. Meanwhile, our dossier was submitted to a portal to which only the district collector has access, and cannot be opened by laypersons… the ‘Catch the Rain’ portal has many images used for representational purposes, but those were picked up, and this claim was made.”
Verification for the award is extremely watertight with verifications happening at the district, state and national levels, he added.
Gupta corroborated what Gowda said, and added that the administration held a press conference to clarify the matter Monday.
According to Gowda, the confusion over the portals has now spread to other districts, with a similar claim being made about Varanasi.
“Welcome to PM’s constituency, Varanasi,” an X handle posted Tuesday. “DM of Varanasi received an award from President of India at National Water Awards. Varanasi secured 2nd place in the Water Harvesting category and received Rs 2 crore as prize money. Reality check on the Jal Shakti website: same photo reused for multiple locations; no visible work on the ground; zero verification,” the post, which had over 2.4K reposts claimed. “This is a clear case of corruption.”
Gowda said it is the same case, wherein “photos uploaded on ‘Catch The Rain’ portal are being taken and misinterpreted as award-winning photographs of the Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari initiative.”
He added that the issue was just a misunderstanding about how government portals work and was reflective of “bad times”.
The sentiment was echoed by the IAS community at large.
“Just a few days ago, it was a fake news involving Tina Dabi, and now this,” an IAS officer posted as a DM said on the condition of anonymity. “There has always been contempt against IAS officers from some people in society, but they have become a vocal minority because of social media and AI, using which they are now spreading outright fake news.”
“It has become too easy for anyone sitting at home to create a controversy out of thin air, and we have to spend the whole week issuing clarifications,” he said. “In this case, it was a mainstream newspaper, so the trend is more worrying.”
Gowda agreed that such controversies, even when accidental, take away too much time and energy of the administration, which could rather be utilised for productive work.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: For Andhra Pradesh’s all-season IAS Praveen Prakash, Naidu-Jagan rivalry cost him his career