To deal with 'Veerus', UP to lock stairs of water tanks

In Ramesh Sippy's Bollywood blockbuster 'Sholay', an inebriated Veeru (Dharmendra) had climbed atop a water tank and threatened to jump unless the 'mausi' (Leela Mishra) agreed to let her niece 'Basanti' (Hema Malini) marry him. In the film, 'Veeru' had come down only after the 'mausi' had relented.

The Uttar Pradesh government, however, has devised another way to tackle the 'Veerus', who often climbed atop the water tanks and threatened to jump unless their demands, which were usually concerned with inaction by the police or civic authorities, were met.

Instead of giving in to their demands, the state government has ordered to either demolish the unused stairs leading to the water tanks or lock them so that no one could climb atop the tanks.

In a communique to the district police and civil authorities, the state government also directed the officials to demolish the water tanks which were not in use anymore.

''It is seen that some people often climb atop the water tanks as a mark of protest and threaten to jump.....it is not proper,'' the letter said.

The new measures came in the wake of several such incidents in the past few days in different parts of the state.

A lawyer and his family members had recently climbed atop a water tank in Prayagraj demanding action against some people who had allegedly grabbed his ancestral land in the village. They came down after 60 hours following much persuasion.

Similarly, one Vijay Rawat, a resident of the state capital of Lucknow, had also, a few days back, climbed atop a water tank in protest against the alleged failure of the police to act against a muscleman, who had evicted him from his house.