In Punjab, more than 1,500 of Reliance Jio’s 9,000 telecom towers have been disrupted by the outraged farmers agitating against the farmer laws. The towers have been out of action due to physical damage, power disruption or theft of generator.
On Monday, Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, has issued a serious warning against the ravaging of mobile towers and disruption of telecom services and has asked to take strict actions in such cases.
Furious farmers have been pouring out anger against Reliance, cutting power supply and cables of telecom towers, and mutilating infrastructure of Mukesh Ambani’s firm, which is seen to be benefitted from the farm laws.
Various cables of Jio’s fibre cable were burnt, employees of Jio being threatened and made to flee in Jalandhar.
Till now, no action has been taken against the offenders.
The chief minister on Monday said that he would not allow the state to be taken over by mobocracy or tolerate the destruction of private or public property. He further said that peaceful protests were not objected by his government but an inconvenience to people or destruction of the property won’t be entertained.
Captain Singh even reminded that disrupting communications in the state will create problems for students, mainly those preparing for Board examinations and people working for home. Banking services have also been affected.
Thousands of farmers have been waiting for the government to scrap the farm law, a demand that the government is not ready to agree on. Farmers of Punjab and Haryana have been distressed as they fear that the law would lead to phasing out of the guaranteed prices offered by the government and allow corporates to exploit them.