TIMES CITY

* THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016

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Thirst for quota leaves city high and dry

Jat Protests: Water Supply Hit, Schools Shut
EVERY DROP COUNTS
No piped supply
in evening to
north, west and
central Delhi on
Sunday

700 water
tankers
pressed into
service

Sukhbir.Siwach
@timesgroup.com

ACTION PLAN FOR MONDAY

14 new tanker lling points

423 tankers to service

west Delhi

140 tankers for north and

central Delhi
Assessment of damage to canal and its repair
Once protesters allow
access, itll take over 24
hours for supply to resume
3-4 hours for canal
level to build up
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Most areas in

north, central and west Delhi
stopped receiving piped-water
supply on Sunday evening, forcing the city government to put
in place emergency plans to
start tanker services. It also ordered closure of all schools on
Monday.
The shutdown of Munak
Canal in Haryana due to protests by Jats over reservation
has the capital in distress as a
major chunk of its water supply comes from there. To make
matters worse, protesters on
Sunday made another cut in
the canal, 100ft upstream from
Mundera village, ensuring it
will take more time for normalcy to return.
Army was belatedly sent to
the Munak Canal, but forced to
make a hasty retreat by angry
protesters. The Supreme Court
is scheduled to hear the Delhi
governments petition on the
closure at 10.30am on Monday.
The canal gates remained
closed till Sunday night and
Delhi government received no
formal communication from
either Haryana or the Centre.
In north, central and west Delhi, there was no evening supply
on Sunday. Because Monday is
likely to be worse, we have decided to start 14 more tanker filling points, said DJB chairperson Kapil Mishra.

Empty pails,
hands full for
central and
west Delhi
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Taps are running

dry in west and central Delhi,
forcing people to rely on water
cans. Y K Anand, RWA president of Babar Colony near
Bengali market, said desspite
repeated requests tankers had
failed to reach them. They were
using mineral water, instead.
We were caught unprepared. I hope the government comes out with a solution soon,
said Anand.
DDA housing flats are
among those affected the most
as they rely completely on government water supply. Areas
like Vikaspuri, Dwarka, and
Uttam Nagar have the maximum number of DDA flats, housing lakhs of people.
There are 1,200 flats in our
housing society and all of them

QUOTA OF WOES
rely on water supply from DJB.
If no solution is found soon, we
dont know what we will do,
said GS Bali, RWA president of
DDA housing society in Pashchim Vihar.
Shopkeepers have started
stocking extra water cans to
help residents fight the crisis. S
K Anand, president of Market
Association of Gole Market in
central Delhi, said: We dont
know when normalcy will be
restored and, so, we are stocking extra cans.
Another shopkeeper in Gole market, however, said there
were fears that even the supply
of water cans might be affected
by the protests as these largely
come from Gurgaon and
Noida.
Residents of east and south
Delhi are better off, but just.
This is not the way to protest.
If they (protesters) block the
canals, the capital will come to
a halt, said Chetan Sharma,
general secretary of Confederation of NCR Residents Welfare Association.

Protesters
ensure status
quo at Munak
canal, 1 killed

3-4 hours for ponds

to ll up in Delhi
6-7 hours for plants
to start production
1-2 hours for reservoirs
Tanker filling will start very early on Monday and, between 6.30am and 7am, 423 tankers
will be dispatched to west Delhi. For north and central Delhi,
140 tankers have been deployed. These will supply to designated points and return for a
refill. The process will continue through the day.

Gurgaon supply
channel vandalised

urgaon could be staring at

a water crisis, after
protesters in Mukhahera
demanding Jat reservations
vandalised the Gurgaon water
supply channel on Sunday,
and shut down the pump
house, cutting the citys water
supply to almost half. If the
channel is not restored
quickly, water supply could
get affected from Monday. TNN

Mishra appealed to discoms to ensure there was no power failure at Sonia Vihar and
Bhagirathi treatment plants,
the only ones that are functional, and at the filling points.
Senior officials, however,
warned that there was only so
much that could be done with
tankers. We cannot match the
piped supply with tankers. In
fact, there is also only a limited
amount that can be diverted
from the command areas of the

to ll up and supply to
reach areas
First ow of water
likely to be turbid and will
have to be drained
two functional plants, said a
senior official.
He added, DJB is relying
heavily on tubewells and using
water from these to fill up tankers. Two-thirds of Delhi has
no water supply. Irrespective of
what DJB does, it is humanly
impossible to meet the demand
with the 250-odd MGD water
that we have at our disposal.
To ensure there was sufficient water for Sunday, DJB reduced supply to the affected
areas from Saturday night itself. Whatever it managed to save was supplied through pipes
on Sunday morning. By evening, seven plants and all underground reservoirs were dry.
Even if protesters allow access to Munak Canalwhere
nearly 8,000 people are stationed to prevent officials from accessing itit will take more
than 24 hours to restore supply.
The protesters have damaged
the canal gate and the operation mechanism. Officials will
first have to determine the extent of damage and, then, repair it. It will take another 16-17
hours for the water to reach the
underground reservoirs from
where it will be pumped to colonies, said another official.
The other problem is since
the canal is now dry, the first
flood of water in it will be highly turbid. This water cannot
be treated and will have to be allowed to flow out, he added.

Chandigarh: In a face-off with

police and paramilitary forces
on Sunday, Jat protesters foiled
their attempts to restore water
supply to Delhi from Munak canal near Garhi Bindroli village
in Sonipat district where the
agitators have laid siege since
Saturday morning. Jats refused
to back off from the spot despite
security personnel bursting tear gas shells.
One person was killed in the
clash between security forces
and protestors and another one
injured.
The protesters had allegedly diverted water supply to a
drain (diversion drain No 8) by
damaging the canals control
panels near Garhi Bindroli on
Saturday morning. Delhi receives 1,085 cusecs of water from
Haryana through two water
channels Delhi branch of
West Yamuna canal and Delhi
parallel carrier channel known
as Munak Canal. The control
panels to regulate the flow through the two channels are situated near Garhi Bindroli.
The Haryana government
had rushed paramilitary forces
and technical team of the irrigation department to the village on Sunday to restore water
supply to Delhi. Sources said
when the personnel reached near the spot, only a few youths
were present. However, soon
around 8,000 villagers, including women, gathered and dared the team to open fire on
them. The 300 paramilitary troops were surrounded by the villagers, they said.
Initially, sources said, the officials tried to convince the protesters to allow them to restore
water supply to Delhi. But the
villagers refused to relent. This
led to bursting of tear gas shells
and firing in the air, but it had
little effect on the protesters.
The authorities then decided
to return from the spot to avoid
confrontation,a source added.

Rich Jats want reservation to

bring parity in education, jobs
Photos: Rajesh Mehta, Indranil Das

DurgeshNandan.Jha
@timesgroup.com

Singhu Border: Neeraj

Khatri owns acres of land
and a fleet of luxury cars, including BMWs and Mahindra Scorpio. He is agitating for
the OBC quota. But this resident of Alipur village on the
northern border of Haryana
is not alone. Many Jats have
joined him and blocked the
Singhu border, leading to
complete crisis as far as public convenience and transportation on the crucial road
linking Delhi to Punjab
and Himachal Pradesh is
concerned.
Speaking to TOI, the protesters claimed that reservation is needed to enable them
to get admission to the best
colleges and government
jobs. The children of SC/ST
and other communities covered under OBC quota get admission with less than 50%
marks, but our children dont
despite scoring more than
75%, said Om Bir, a protester. If they cannot include
us in the OBC quota, the reservation policy should be
abolished to bring parity
among all communities, he
added.
Jats, who have traditionally been farmers, constitutes nearly 20-30% of Haryanas population. But most youth in the state say they dont
want to do farming since it is
not profitable anymore. Also,
many of them have sold their
land. There are few good
schools and colleges in Haryana. We dont get admission
in the top colleges of Delhi
University because of high
cut-offs. Reservation would
give us a strong footing to better our academic standards,
said Ramesh Sura, an IAS
aspirant.
Surinder S Jodhka, professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU), likened the Jats demand for inclusion in OBC

ANARCHY: Sabir Kaur and her

family (top) walked nearly
20 kilometres from Panipat to
catch a flight to the US as Jats
blocked roads with their SUVs

quota to that of the Patidar

community from Gujarat
who held similar protests in
2015. Both communities have some poor, but overall they
cannot be termed as economically backward. Still, they
are demanding quota due to a

sense of relative deprivation.

This coincides with the waning of the dominance of
Jats in the region, he said.
The community has agitated to be on the OBC list of
both Centre and states since
the Mandal Commission re-

port of 1991. In 2014, the Congress-led state government included them and four other
castes under 10% Specially
Backward Class (SBC) quota,
which was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Many people TOI spoke to
in Sonipat allege that Congress is fuelling the protests.
The fact that BJP having
elected a non-Jat chief minister and one of its MPs, RK
Saini, constantly taking jibes
at Jats on the issue of reservation has aggravated the
matter, said Dipak Sura, a
student.
The protests have not only hit the locals but also tourists. I came to Delhi to see
off my cousin on Saturday.
He has reached Australia
and joined office, but Im yet
to reach my hometown Ludhiana which is 300km away,
said Amarjeet Singh, a commuter. Sabir Kaur and her family, including an infant,
walked nearly 20 kilometres
from Panipat to Alipur border to catch a flight to the US
on Monday.

Latest crisis makes case for lakes revival Respite for Ggn
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The city, which

is almost entirely dependent
on its neighbours for water
supply, probably felt such
scarcity for the first time.
Other than firefighting a crisis in which 70% of the city
was without water, the government has also woken up
to the need of having reserves that can last at least two
days.
There were two plans on
the table for creating a water
store for Delhi, both of
which have been rejected.
The government is now inclined towards reviving large waterbodies to act as na-

tural reservoirs and promoting rainwater harvesting.

Delhi needs a holding system and the best method for
that at present is revival of
major lakes like Bhalsawa,
Sanjay Jheel and Najafgarh.
In times of extreme crisis,
like the present situation,
we need a parallel system
that will last at least a couple
of days, said a senior government official.
Water activist Manoj
Mishra, who supports the
plan for revival of waterbodies, has questioned why
Delhis supply from Haryana comes through a canal
and not directly through the
river. The problem has star-

Two plans to create

water stores have been
rejected. The government is now inclined
towards reviving large
waterbodies to act as
natural reservoirs
ted because Delhis supply is
being directed through these canals.
At Hathnikund, Haryana drains the river dry and
diverts its water to the Western Yamuna Canal, some of
it meant for Delhi and the
rest for Haryana. This canal
runs parallel to the river.
What is its point then? Del-

his supply should be allowed to come through the river while its share in the Satluj water should also be diverted through drain 8 to the
river, he said.
Mishra also proposed
that instead of creating a reservoir on the river at Palla,
which is what the government had originally proposed, it should create reservoirs off the river. The government has sufficient
land at Palla for creation of
these lakes and some excess
monsoon flow can be diverted to these, he added.
The last proposal for creation of reservoirs which
has been rejected by the go-

vernment involved pumping excess monsoon flow to

the Bhatti Mines area where
it could be stored in the several pits.
Sources said the high
costs involved in pumping
this water to the pits made
the proposal highly impractical. There was another
plan to treat about 40 million
gallons per day of water to
tertiary level and release it
into the raw water at Palla
from where it would be taken to treatment plants. However, Haryana and UP raised objections to this plan,
threatening to reduce Delhis supply if any intervention was made at Palla.

Unreserved trains for stuck passengers

Piyal Bhattacharjee

Anvit.Srivastava
@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Dhansingh Bhadle has the responsibility of getting back 17 people to their native village in Barwani district
of Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
The 52-year-old came to attend
a religious function at Ramlila
Maidan on Tuesday, but has
been stranded at New Delhi railway station since Saturday
evening along with his group,
which includes nine women,
as all trains to his destination
remain cancelled.
Every time Bhadle gets up
to check for a train leaving towards Indore the group becomes hopeful that their wait
has come to an end. The train
we came to board last night never arrived. Our food and water stock has finished. I have
been checking for unreserved
trains as getting reservation
for 17 people within such a
short time is not possible. We
havent even been refunded for
our cancelled tickets yet,
Bhadle said.
Lakhs of other passengers
share Bhadles predicament as
services of trains going towards Mumbai were terminated
after protesters blocked Delhi-

TRAVEL TRAVAILS
Weve to attend a
wedding,
but are waiting
here since the
morning as our
train was cancelled. We
cant afford air travel
RAMVEER | TRAVELLING TO PUNJAB
Our train was scheduled to
depart at 2.50pm on Sunday,
but was cancelled. I
have three women
and two kids with
me, and road
travel doesnt seem
to be a safe option
PREMCHAND | TRAVELLING

TO AMBALA

STRANDED: Dhansingh Bhadle and 17 others had come to attend a religious function in the capital

Palwal-Mathura stretch.
Nazeer (32) and his brother
came to Delhi from Jalandhar
along with their families for a
weekend getaway. Now that
our train has been cancelled, I
have been looking for a hotel. I
cant let my wife and children
sleep on the platform, he said.
On Sunday, 1,050 trains were affected by the Jat protests,
800 of which were cancelled

and 200 diverted. Senior railway officials said over 300 freight trains were also hit. The
disruption has caused a loss of
over Rs 500 crore to the railways in the past two days.
The busiest division of
Northern Railways, Delhi, has
been the worst hit. Of the 800
cancelled trains, most either
pass through or originate/terminate here. We have decided

to run unreserved trains to clear the rush, said Neeraj Sharma, chief public relations officer, Northern Railways.
Disruption was reported
from most sections of Delhi division, including Jind, Hisar,
Rohtak, Kurukshetra and Palwal by Sunday evening. Sharma said 12 stations were burnt
on Sunday and tracks have been damaged at some places.

I was to board Jan Sewa

Express that leaves at 1pm.
I have been waiting
since then
MUNNA (29)
| TRAVELLING TO SURAT
Most trains go via Panipat,
which means a
lot of people are
stranded here. Im
looking at road
travel options now
SUBHASH (26)
| TRAVELLING TO ODISHA

as stir called off

Chetna.Choudhry
@timesgroup.com

Gurgaon: After three days of

violent protests by Jats demanding OBC status across Haryana, Gurgaon is likely to get some respite from Monday. Jat leaders of the city broke ranks
with those of the rest of the state to withdraw their stir.
Late in the evening, Gurgaon's Jat leaders met deputy
commissioner T L Satyaprakash and agreed to call off the
protest for now. Sources revealed theyll decide on their future course of action after a Jat
delegation visits Chandigarh
to meet Haryana officials soon.
We are confident of normalcy. All Jat leaders across
party lines have agreed to withdraw protests. All industrial establishments may open and
operate, Satyaprakash said.
Amember of the delegation
told TOI they are giving a chance to the government to fulfil its
promise. Weve been assured
by home minister Rajnath Singh that Jats will be included in
the OBC quota. We have faith in

the government and will wait

out the budget session till
March 17, when they promised
to table the bill. Protests will resume if they backtrack, said
Ajit Kataria, a Jat leader.
The agitation will continue
across the state, though. SourRajesh Mehta

FACE-OFF: A protest near Alipur

ces revealed that despite asking

for written assurance, the
Union home minister only gave
verbal pledge We also asked
for BJP MP Raj Kumar Sainis
suspension for his negative remarks about the Jat demand.
The minister said Saini has been given notice and asked us to
wait for a few days, said a
member of the committee that
met Rajnath Singh.

Poultry prices may

rise, veggies not hit
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The government

and agricultural produce market committees on Sunday attempted to quell fears of a rise
in prices of fruits and vegetables due to the blockade in Haryana. Delhi is getting extremely limited supplies from Haryana or through the state at present. In fact, supplies headed
for Haryana are stuck at the
border which has resulted in a
surplus in Delhi, said Mahendar Sanpal, chairman (allotment committee) APMC.
The only food item that could see a rise in price is poultry.

So far, there is no impact on food prices in Delhi and it is unlikely that fruits and vegetables will become expensive. There could be some impact on poultry prices at a later date. With
BJP having promised a special
session on reservation, the
protests may be called off as
early as Monday in which case
prices will remain under control, said an official.
Supply from Haryana is expected to start from April. Some trucks do come from Haryana but there are alternative
routes through UP etc and hence supply has not been affected, said an APMC official.