India caste unrest: Jat protesters ease Haryana roads blockade
India caste unrest: Army takes control of Delhi water link
(about 7 hours later)
Protesters in India's Haryana state have partially lifted their blockade of roads after the state government agreed to their demands for jobs quotas.
India's army has taken control of a key canal that supplies water to Delhi, the capital's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said.
Twelve people - mostly protestors from the Jat community - have died and scores have been wounded in three days of violent riots.
Protesters from the Jat community demanding job quotas in neighbouring Haryana state seized the Munak canal.
Water supplies to Delhi have been cut, with water treatment plants damaged and a canal blocked.
The blockage and damage to water treatment plants led to a disruption of supplies to Delhi.
Schools in the capital are being kept closed on Monday to conserve supplies.
Nineteen people have died and scores have been wounded in three days of violent riots, a senior official said.
Protesters want guaranteed jobs under India's caste quota system.
Hundreds of water tankers are being despatched across Delhi and schools are closed after supplies from a canal were sabotaged during violent protests.
The land-owning Jat community is relatively affluent and has traditionally been seen as upper caste.
The army took control of parts of the canal on Monday morning, but it's unclear how long repairs will take.
But in March 2014 the Congress-led national government said it would re-categorise Jats as Other Backward Castes (OBC), opening the way to government job quotas.
Mr Kejriwal said the army was "trying to assess in how much time water would reach Delhi and whether any damage had been done to the canal".
This was quashed by the Supreme Court in 2015. It ruled that Jats should not be entitled to OBC status as they were not a backward community.
Senior Haryana government official PK Das told the AFP news agency that the death toll from the rioting in the state had risen to 19, with another 200 people wounded.
Jats argue this ruling put them at a disadvantage. They insist job quotas should be similar to those granted to lower caste people.
He said the violence was now abating and curfew had been lifted in some districts.
After days of violence, the government in Haryana announced on Sunday it would table a bill for the status to be granted at the state assembly.
Meanwhile India's central government says it will set up a top-level committee to look into Jat grievances.
Two more people were killed in continued clashes on Sunday, after 10 deaths on Friday and Saturday.
Protesters went on the rampage despite a curfew and the deployment of the army, which is reported to have opened fire on them in the districts of Rohtak and Jhajjar.
Protesters went on the rampage despite a curfew and the deployment of the army, which is reported to have opened fire on them in the districts of Rohtak and Jhajjar.
The violence has forced the closure of several key roads and national highways, and paralysed the railway system in north India.
The violence forced the closure of several key roads and national highways, and paralysed the railway system in north India.
The bus service between India and Pakistan has been affected, too, with passengers left stranded.
After days of violence, the government in Haryana announced on Sunday that it would table a bill granting the demands of the Jat community at the state assembly.
Caste system and quotas: Politician and writer Shashi Tharoor
Meanwhile India's central government has said it will set up a top-level committee to look into Jat grievances.
India's constitution, adopted in 1950, inaugurated the world's oldest and farthest-reaching affirmative action programme, guaranteeing scheduled castes and tribes - the most disadvantaged groups in Hinduism's hierarchy - not only equality of opportunity but guaranteed outcomes, with reserved places in educational institutions, government jobs and even seats in parliament and the state assemblies.
Why are the Jats angry?
The logic was simple: they were justified as a means of making up for millennia of discrimination based on birth.
In 1989, the government decided to extend their benefits to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) - those hailing from the lower and intermediate castes who were deemed backward because they lacked "upper caste" status.
As more and more people sought fewer available government and university positions, we witnessed the unedifying spectacle of castes fighting with each other to be declared backward.
