Many areas in India are suffering from a lack of water, and this has resulted in water supplies being blocked in various areas.
Deadly unrest in a neighbouring state, Haryana blocked about half the amount piped to 18 million people to the capital New Delhi, resulting in Indian security forces being brought in to try and stabilise the region.
Protesters in Haryana shut off a canal carrying water to New Delhi during demonstrations over caste rights. These demonstrations also caused the closure of top automaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. to shut some factories, resulting in more than five thousand security personnel being deployed into the area.
Members of the Jat community, which comprises around 30% of Haryana’s population, led the demonstrations in Haryana, demand to be included in a designation known as Other Backward Class so that they can access benefits such as college admission and government jobs under India’s affirmative action policy.
According to the city’s water utility Delhi Jal Board, the demonstrations and subsequent closure of the pipeline affected around 1,800 million litres of the 3,400 million litres that is normally supplied to the capital on a daily basis. Tankers of water were sent out to the worst-affected northern and western parts of the city to deliver water to those in need and schools were shut.
According to Maruti Suzuki, the disruptions to their component supplies halted output in factories in Gurgaon and Manesar, which together produce around 5,000 vehicles a day. Spokesman Puneet Dhawan said on Monday that the company has not yet decided when it will reopen and resume production.
On Saturday, a civilian was killed when troops opened fire on rioters in Jhajjar about 50 kilometres west of New Delhi. According to the Press Trust of India, at least 12 people have died and 150 were injured.
The social stratification, based largely on Hindu beliefs of purity, has created the caste system under which government guarantees a wide range of benefits to lower castes and indigenous tribes.
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