Agitating farmers and supporting groups in Punjab have targeted the telecom towers of Reliance Jio in the state, thus disrupting the mobile and internet services of the company and causing inconvenience to the consumers.
According to industry sources, agitating groups have cut off the power supply of around 1,300 mobile towers of Jio in the state. There are around 9,000 towers of Jio in Punjab. For some towers, the fiber has been cut by such groups.
The farmers rushing to change their mobile operator from Jio to Airtel and Vodafone-Idea. They have been using the portability option, which allows a mobile phone user to switch to a different network while retaining their mobile number.
The campaign that initially started in Punjab in September has been picking up pace among people from Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh too.
As is known, the state’s farmers are protesting against new farm laws and are adamant that the central government repeal them. In the process, they also gave a call for boycotting products of Reliance Industries and Adani Group.
“Forceful disruption of telecom services due to snapping of power supply to mobile towers by farmers in several parts of the state is 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,” Singh had said.
“Further, the disruption of telecom services would also seriously affect the state’s already disturbed economy,” the chief minister said.