RIL approaches Pb & Hry HC seeking end to vandalism of Jio towers in Punjab

Petition states that RIL has not done any 'corporate' or contract farming in the past and has no intention of doing so in the future

Reliance Jio on Monday approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court urging it to direct the Punjab government to intervene and stop the continuous vandalism of its infrastructure in the state. The Mukesh Ambani led company stated that the vandalism has endangered the lives of its employees and disrupted its communication setup.

In a petition filed earlier this morning, Jio said that the miscreants have been indulged by people with vested interest under the garb of the ongoing farmer protests. Jio had earlier said that the gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that there is an outage of 1,504 Jio towers in Punjab which represents 15 per cent of the total number. Similar outages have been reported for 85 Jio towers in Haryana. 

The petition stated that "Reliance Industries Limited have not done any corporate or contract farming in the past, and have absolutely no plans to enter the business. Neither Reliance nor any of our subsidiaries has purchased any agricultural land, directly or indirectly, in Punjab and Haryana or anywhere else in India, for the purpose of corporate or contract farming. We have absolutely no plans to do so."

Earlier, in letters sent to Anshu Prakash, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and P.D. Vaghela, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI, Reliance Jio said that a grave situation has emerged in Punjab and Haryana amid the ongoing farmers' protest.

"As a result of false and frivolous communication that Reliance will be an undue beneficiary of the farm bills passed by Parliament, Jio's telecommunications network is being targeted by the protesters and the same is being disrupted and permanently damaged," Reliance Jio said. Reliance Jio has asked the TRAI and DoT to take action against Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel for these unethical and unscrupulous practices of their channel partners.

However, Airtel and Vodafone Idea hit back terming the charges as baseless, false and outrageous. Airtel in a letter to Department of Telecom (DoT) said Jio's allegations against it did not demonstrate any evidence that Bharti had any hand in the ongoing issues that the company is facing, and that the complaint should be dismissed "with the contempt that it deserves".