As water crisis continues to grip various parts of the country, the administration in Madhya Pradesh's drought-hit Tikamgarh district have been forced to deploy people with guns to guard water in the Jamni River and check the farmers of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh from stealing water.
Angry scenes and squabbles have become a common site in Tikamgarh, which is located in the Bundelkhand region.
With the Municipal Corporation supplying water just once every four days through tankers and water pipelines, quarrels often break out over water.
The situation has gone from bad to worse in drought-hit Tikamgarh in the last three years. The population of the district is more than one lakh and the decreasing water level in the river has added to the woes of the villagers.
The municipality is, therefore, been forced to hire armed security personnel to guard the water available in Barighat situated on Jamni.
These security personnel guard the water throughout the day with a shift of eight hours each.
Laxmi Giri, the chairman of the Nagar Palika, said that they have hired ten 10 armed men with license to stop the farmers from stealing water.