NEW DELHI: As thousands of members of an underprivileged community in northern India continue to protest to demand government benefits, more than 16 million people in India’s capital are facing a major water crisis as a result of the violent demonstrations, which have left at least 10 dead.
Pakistan on Sunday suspended the Dosti Bus Service that runs between Lahore and Delhi after the violence in Haryana.
Cast activists have damaged equipment that brings water from Munak canal in Haryana state to New Delhi, depleting the capital’s water supply. New Delhi gets about 60 percent of its water from the neighboring state.
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, announced Sunday that schools in the capital would be closed Monday. He also ordered the rationing of water to people’s homes.
At least 10 people have been killed in firing on protesters by Indian security forces since the weeklong protests turned violent on Friday, Yashpal Singhal, the state’s top police officer, told reporters on Sunday. Another 150 protesters have been injured in clashes in various parts of Haryana.
Sporadic violence was reported in Haryana on Sunday, with protesters setting a bank ATM and bank records on fire. Singhal said no major incidents of violence were reported in the state.
He also said paramilitary forces and irrigation engineers were trying to restore the water flow from Munak canal to New Delhi.
Deadly protests lead to water crisis in New Delhi
Deadly protests lead to water crisis in New Delhi
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
