SONIPAT, HARYANA, INDIA (Reuters) — The Indian army has taken control of a canal that supplies three-fifths of Delhi’s water, the state’s chief minister said on Monday (February 22), raising hope that a water crisis in the metropolis of more than 20 million people can be averted.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the army had regained control of the gates of the Munak canal north of Delhi from the protesters
Though water was expected to reach the capital within a few hours, Delhi’s Water Resource Minister Kapil Mishra said the water crisis was likely to continue for a few more days.
“The Army has taken control of Munak canal. The canal was damaged by protesters and repair work will have to be done. We have dispatched a team from the Delhi Water Board to assess the damage and the time and money required to repair it. But water has been released down an unpaved route and will reach Delhi in about five hours. We will try to supply some water in the evening. The Delhi Water Board will supply water to households as soon as it reaches them after treatment. However, the water crisis will continue for a few more days,” he said.
Protests by the Jat caste in neighbouring Haryana state have paralysed road and rail links and killed at least 10 in a challenge to the authority of the state and national governments run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist party.
Although the government bowed on Sunday (February 21) to the demands of the Jats for more government jobs and places in education, protest leaders said their campaign would continue.
Ramesh Dalal, convenor of the Jat Arakshan Andolan (Jat Reservation Movement), told Reuters that the government was making a big mistake by ignoring them, and that they were determined to win the battle.
Rioting escalated over the weekend across Haryana, a largely rural state of 25 million to the west of the national capital.
The Jats, who make up a quarter of the state’s population, are largely rural landowners who have lost out as population growth has shrunk the size of family farms while two years of drought have hit their crops.
There were reports of outbreaks of inter-caste conflict in some flashpoints while residents declared others no-go areas for the police and army, despite the deployment of nearly 10,000 soldiers and border guards to quell the protests.
Protesters have burned railway stations and car showrooms, blocked road traffic and forced the cancellation of hundreds of trains. India’s largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, has shut two factories because of disruption to its supply chain.