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Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s appeal to protesting farmers to not damage telecom infrastructure seems to have failed to deter new attacks, with more than 176 signal transmitting sites being vandalised in the last 24 hours, sources said in a report by PTI.
While firms belonging to billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani do not procure foodgrains from farmers, the narrative that new farm laws are to benefit them has made them easy targets, with protesting farmers in different places in Punjab having vandalised and damaged Reliance Jio towers, snapping connectivity.
As many as 176 towers have been damaged since Saturday, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
“Pointing out that telecom connectivity had become even more critical for people amid the Covid pandemic, the chief minister urged the farmers to show the same discipline and sense of responsibility which they had been exercising during their protest at the Delhi border, which has completed one month, and also earlier during their agitation in the state,” a statement issued by the chief minister’s office had said.
Urging the farmers to not take the law in their hands by forcibly shutting down telecom connectivity or manhandling employees/technicians of telecom service providers, the chief minister had said such actions were not in the interest of Punjab and its future. ?
“Forceful disruption of telecom services due to snapping of power supply to mobile towers by farmers in several parts of the state was not only adversely affecting the studies and future prospects of students, who are dependent entirely on online education, but also hampering the daily life of people working from home due to the pandemic,” the statement had quoted the chief minister as saying.
