Taking a cue from the 1975 blockbuster movie “Sholay”, where Dharmendra climbed atop a water tank to woo his beloved and threatened to jump if she refused, protesters in Punjab appear to be turning reel into real life. Security agencies are on their toes as unions and organisations increasingly resort to climbing towers and water tanks to press their demands.Be it unemployed linemen, job-seeking teachers, employees or other agitating groups, all insist their demands are genuine and must be addressed by the state government. The spike in such protests comes days after the Samana agitation, where Army assistance was sought to safely bring down Gurjeet Singh Khalsa after the government accepted his long-pending demand.At present, around nine members of the Apprentice Linemen Union have been perched atop a high-tension transmission tower on the Patiala-Sangrur highway for nearly a week. They have threatened to remain there until their demands are met.A few kilometres away, Covid “warrior” nurses protesting outside the residence of Health Minister Balbir Singh in Patiala decided to intensify their agitation by climbing a water tank and demanding regularisation of their services. Those atop the tank announced they would not come down until Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann personally arrived and accepted their demands.Last week, ETT teacher Harjit Singh climbed a telephone exchange tower in CM Mann’s constituency of Dhuri in Sangrur district, demanding that pending issues relating to recruitment, appointment letters and other concerns be resolved.“They leave us with no option. Police lathi-charge us or use water cannons to disperse peaceful protests. This is the only way to make ourselves heard,” said members of the linemen and nurses’ unions.Meanwhile, the state police are trying to come up with out-of-the-box ideas to deal with the growing trend of high-altitude protests. While protest movements elsewhere increasingly rely on social media to amplify their demands, agitating groups in poll-bound Punjab seem to be taking their protests a few hundred feet higher.In recent times, several unions and pressure groups have literally gone sky-high, climbing transmission towers, water tanks and mobile towers to stage demonstrations. As the Assembly elections draw closer, such protests have intensified, posing new challenges for the police.“From installing barbed fencing to sealing the gates of water tanks, we are trying everything possible. But it is not enough to deter union members who are determined to find ways to be heard,” said a police official.“We have to deploy ambulances, medical teams, fire brigade personnel and police staff at these sites round the clock to ensure the safety of the protesters. Most of our appeals to them have been rejected and we are often left as mute spectators,” said a senior IPS officer.“Our investigations in many important cases get hampered because personnel from police stations and reserve units have to be deployed continuously at these protest sites. We are also trying to prevent other unions from taking cues and adopting similar methods,” he added.A police officer recalled that Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan had visited Samana, where ex-serviceman Gurjeet Singh Khalsa ended his 560-day protest on April 24. Khalsa had climbed a 400-ft BSNL tower demanding a stricter anti-sacrilege law. Sandhwan frequently engaged with the protesters and presented drafts of the amended legislation in an effort to resolve the agitation.“Now everyone wants to be heard, and this seems to have become an easy option for them,” the officer said.