CHANDIGARH - More than 1,500 telecom towers in Punjab have been damaged by farmers protesting against the three farm laws, disrupting services in some pockets, sources said.
Power supply to towers that relay telecom signals was snapped and cables cut in several parts of the state as farmers vented their anger on the infrastructure owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. as they saw him along with industrialist Gautam Adani as major beneficiaries of the new laws."Till yesterday, 1,411 towers were damaged and today the count has gone well past 1,500," a source with knowledge of the matter said.
In Jalandhar, some bundles of Jio's fibre cable were also burnt. Jio has 9,000 plus towers in the state.Another source said the most common way of damaging the telecom towers was to cut off the power supply. In at least one case, the generator at a tower site was physically taken away and allegedly donated to a local gurudwara. The attacks have impacted telecom services and operators are struggling to maintain services, the source said.
The Punjab chief minister had on Friday appealed to protesting farmers to not cause inconvenience to the general public with such actions and continue to exercise the same restraint as they had shown over the past several months of their agitation. According to the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, a registered body of telecom infrastructure providers, at least 1,600 towers have been vandalized. These include common access infrastructure as well.
The Punjab chief minister had on Friday appealed to protesting farmers to not cause inconvenience to the general public with such actions and continue to exercise the same restraint as they had shown over the past several months of their agitation. According to the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, a registered body of telecom infrastructure providers, at least 1,600 towers have been vandalized. These include common access infrastructure as well.
The towers infrastructure association TAIPA, which had written a letter to IGP (Law and Order) of Punjab Police, is planning to write another letter since the attacks have escalated over the past week. On the last Friday alone, some 700 Jio towers were damaged, which primarily involve cutting off the power supply. "We are taking cognizance of the damage done, and will write another letter shortly," says T.R. Dua, director general at TAIPA.
Last Tuesday, TAIPA's letter mentioned the incidents of forceful shutting down of telecom towers in Bhatinda and Hoshiarpur districts. The letter also said that the protesting farmers had threatened the employees and technicians of physical harm/manhandling in case the tower sites are restored. Since then, farmers have damaged infra in more districts of Punjab.
So far, the farmer protests have affected Jio in two phases. In the first phase, the telco wrote a letter to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) in mid-December seeking stringent action against the rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for "unethically" fanning the farmers' ire to port out Jio's customers to their networks. Jio had said that porting out resulted in substantial loss of subscribers. Though the actual numbers are still unavailable, some reports suggest that Jio lost about 1.5 lakh customers to Airtel and Vodafone Idea due to protests. Other estimates suggest Jio has lost 78 Lakh subscribes.
Hundreds of farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders for over a month now against the three farm laws.
The government has denied their apprehensions, saying MSP will continue and the new laws only provide farmers an alternative market to sell their produce.