Caste protests cut water to capital city

India deployed thousands of troops in a northern state on Sunday to quell protests that have severely hit water supplies to Delhi, a city of more than 20 million people, forced factories to close and killed 10 people.

The rioting in Haryana by the Jats, a rural caste, is symptomatic of increasingly fierce competition for government jobs and educational openings in India, whose growing population is set to overtake China's within a decade.

Rapid urbanization is putting pressure on water supplies after two years of drought, with the mega-city around the capital New Delhi relying on Haryana to meet much of its needs.