Rural Indian protesters have paralysed a northern state despite a deal giving them more government jobs, but there was relief for New Delhi's 20 million residents as the army retook control of their main water source.
Days of rioting and looting across Haryana state by the Jat rural caste have killed at least 16 people and threaten to undermine Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of better days for Indians who elected him in 2014 with the largest majority in three decades.
Thousands of troops have been deployed to quell protests, which flared again on Monday near Sonipat as protesters set fire to a freight train. In neighbouring Rajasthan, Jats attacked and burned buses.
A compromise with the Jats brokered by Modi's home minister on Sunday failed to get protesters to clear highway roadblocks.
Further talks to end the crisis were set for Monday evening.
Disruption has been huge, with 850 trains cancelled, 500 factories closed and business losses estimated at $2.9 billion.
"We will continue the protests. The government thinks we will succumb to their pressure tactics but they are making a big mistake by ignoring us," Ramesh Dalal, convenor of the Jat Arakshan Andolan (Jat Reservation Movement), told Reuters.
The army retook control of a canal that supplies three-fifths of the capital's water. Delhi's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the army had reopened the sluice gates of the Munak canal to the north of the city. Water was expected to reach the metropolis by early Tuesday.
The Haryana government put the death toll at 16 while police said that, while order was slowly being restored, there were still tensions in some towns as Jats tried to prevent other communities from reopening their shops.
In Bahadurgarh, to the west of Delhi, Jat protesters were out in force, expressing their anger against Modi and demanding written assurances of more jobs for their community, which makes up a quarter of Haryana's population.
Many Jats, who number more than 80 million across north India, are farmers whose livelihoods have suffered as families divide farms among their children while two years of drought have harmed their crops.
As a social group they are experiencing downward mobility and missing out on urban job opportunities, explaining their demand for government jobs and student places under affirmative action policies that are typically reserved for deprived groups.
