Deadly north India protests lead to New Delhi water shortage

Mr Singh said all assistance will be provided to the Haryana government in tackling the law and order situation.

Authorities in India’s capital have closed schools and taken other measures to combat a depletion of the city’s water supply caused by violent protests in a neighboring state that have left at least 10 people dead.

Buckling under pressure from agitating Jats, BJP today announced that a Bill for giving OBC status to Jats will be brought in the coming Haryana Assembly session and a high-powered committee will be set up to examine the quota demand for the community in central jobs.

Two more deaths were reported on Sunday in the Sonipat and Hissar districts of the state, raising the death toll to 12, Das said.

A committee has been formed under the leadership of Vankaiah Naidu over the issue of reservation of the Jat community, Singh told reporters.

India’s constitution includes a system of affirmative action for people in the lowest castes to help them overcome discrimination. “Twenty shops adjacent to the post and a school were also gutted”, local police officer Hari Om said in Kalanaur.

An AFP photographer said he saw mobs, some armed with swords and sickles, running through the streets in Rohtak and trying to stop the media taking pictures. Five people were injured in Rohtak.

The supply sources of water feeding seven Water Treatment Plants have completely dried up and as a result all these plants had to be shut down.

Delhi, which gets nearly all its water needs from Haryana, is expected to go without potable water supplied to homes on Monday.

“Barring President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, defence installations, hospitals and fire brigades- water to be equally rationed”, Kejriwal said.

Protesters maintained blockades of roads into Haryana, television footage showed.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the Chandigarh-Shimla highway after Jat agitators blocked it at Panchkula in Haryana near Chandigarh. Maruti Suzuki said disruption to component supplies led to a weekend halt in output at factories in Manesar and Gurgaon that jointly produce about 5,000 vehicles a day.

Jats are the single largest community in Haryana, with almost eight million members, and are traditionally a farming community.

The “Sada-e-Sarhad” bus service between Delhi and Lahore and the Samjhauta Express link train from Delhi to Attari (Punjab) have also been affected. “Ten small and big railway stations have been burnt”.

Thousands of members of an underprivileged community who are protesting to demand government benefits have damaged equipment that brings water from Munak canal in Haryana state to New Delhi, diminishing the capital’s water supply.