People climbing atop water tanks and mobile phone towers to articulate grievances has become a standard practice now in Uttarakhand. Things get an emotive tinge as the statehood activists are doing the same to draw the attention of the State Government, saying their plight keeps worsening since the State came up.
Seemingly flummoxed by such a mode of protest picking up momentum, the district administration has remained nonchalant. No plan has been drafted so far to stop such things from recurring. Such indecisiveness might prove costly as the possibility of some of them immolating themselves cannot be ruled out. Observers opine that such cases are increasing in the State Capital because of lack of police patrolling and intelligence failure.
It has been observed that frustrated with making futile rounds of the serpentine departmental alleys and with the Government choosing to ignore their long-pending demands, the aggrieved people are taking to such stunts as the last resort.Once the protesters climb atop towers or trees things turn frightfully challenging for the administrative officers and police to bring them down.
In all such cases, what is found is that police persuade the agitators to get down while rolling out assurances for a meeting with the State Government officials to have their grievances redressed.
Recently, a woman climbed atop a water tank, ventilating protest against her land having been encroached by the local public representatives. She had earlier approached local police. But her concerns had fallen on deaf ears.
Statistics reveal that possibilities of people climbing atop towers increase when the Assembly session is on. City Magistrate lalit Narayan Mishra said that cases of protesters climbing atop towers are increasing in Dehradun over the past few months.
Earlier, then DM Chandresh Kumar had asked the department officers to remove stairs of the towers and tanks up to 14 feet to stop the protesters from going for such stunts.
The directive was implemented partly. This led to the administration sending a reminder to implement the order in full with a warning of departmental action being taken against the errant officials. Mishra further said that security will be strengthened in the areas where towers and tanks are located.