India caste unrest: ‘Ten million without water’ in Delhi

Water trucks fanned out across the teeming, landlocked city, where infrastructure struggles at the best of times, but it was not clear just how many people were still affected, although many households were without regular water four days after the canal was badly damaged.

“The government has promised to meet our demands and we have promised our full cooperation”, Ramesh Dalal, convener of the Jat Arakshan Andolan (Jat Reservation Movement), told reporters.

The state government of Delhi has sounded an alert over water supplies and announced that schools in the city will remain closed Monday.

Thousands of soldiers were dispatched Saturday in the state of Haryana, with orders to shoot on sight, after impressive riots in which houses and stations were burned, blocked highways.

(AP Photo/Chonchui Ngashangva). Police use water cannons to disperse rotestors of the Jat agricultural community near the Delhi University area in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Feb.20, 2016.

At least 10 people have been killed and 150 injured in violence linked to the pro-quota agitation by the Jat community in Haryana, the state’s Director General of Police Y.P. Singhal said February 21.

Partial water supplies started flowing in New Delhi on Tuesday a day after the military took control of a water canal and protestors in neighboring Haryana state ended almost a week of protests that left 18 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

A senior local police officer warned the situation was tense in Jhajjar as Jat protesters kept up their agitation. In neighbouring Rajasthan, Jats attacked and burned buses.

Some supplies resumed to northern and central parts of the city, and could reach western neighbourhoods by Tuesday evening, said water minister Kapil Mishra.

For centuries, India’s complex caste system has dictated a Hindu’s lot in life, elevating some to positions as priests and labeling others as “untouchables”.

He also said paramilitary forces and irrigation engineers were trying to restore the water flow from Munak canal to New Delhi. Kumar appealed to Modi and to chief minister Khattar for compensation: “Are we not humans?”

The national government initially granted them OBC status in 2014, but the top court then overrode the decision, arguing that Jats were not “backward”.

Although numerous state’s chief ministers have been Jats, the current minister is not.

They said Samiti leaders and volunteers will visit various parts of Haryana from Wednesday and request the people, who are still agitating, to call off the protest.