Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), through its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) on Monday said that the company will file a petition in the Punjab and Haryana court to stop vandalism by miscreants.
Farmers protesting against the Centre's contentious new farm laws have allegedly damaged more than 1,500 telecom towers in Punjab
Reliance Jio in its filing to the stock exchanges informed, “RJIL in a petition mentioned to be filed in the Honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court today, has sought the urgent intervention of Government authorities to bring a complete stop to the illegal acts of vandalism by miscreants.”
Reliance Industries shares on Monday were down by 0.55 per cent at 1976.15 on the Bombay Stock Exchange at about 10.50 am.
Expressing concern, it further said, these acts of violence have endangered the lives of thousands of its employees and caused damage and disruption to the vital communications infrastructure, sales and service outlets run by its subsidiaries in the two states.
It further blamed that this protest against the company is aided by vested interests and the company’s business rivals. Adding the company has nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently debated in the country, and in no way benefits from them.
“As such, the sole nefarious purpose of linking the name of Reliance to these laws is to harm our businesses and damage our reputation,” the company said in a statement.
On the ongoing farmers protest in the country, Reliance clarified the following points:
1. Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), or any other affiliate of our parent company, i.e., Reliance Industries Limited have not done any “corporate” or “contract” farming in the past, and have absolutely no plans to enter this business.
2. Neither Reliance nor any of our subsidiaries has purchased any agricultural land, directly or indirectly, in Punjab/Haryana or anywhere else in India, for the purpose of “corporate” or “contract” farming. We have absolutely no plans to do so.
3. Reliance Retail is an unmatched leader in organised retail business in India. It retails products of all categories including food grains and staples, fruits and vegetables, items of daily use, apparel, medicines, electronic products of various brands belonging to independent manufacturers and suppliers in the country. It does not purchase any food grains directly from farmers. It has never entered into long-term procurement contracts to gain unfair advantage over farmers or sought that its suppliers buy from farmers at less than remunerative prices, nor will it ever do so.
4. We at Reliance have immense gratitude and the greatest respect for India’s kisans, who are the ‘ANNA DATA’ of 1.3 billion Indians. Reliance and its affiliates are committed to doing everything to enrich and empower them. As customers of their services, we believe in building a strong and equal partnership with Indian farmers on the basis of shared prosperity, inclusive development and an equitable New India.
5. Therefore, Reliance and its affiliates fully share and support the aspiration of Indian farmers to get a fair and profitable price on a predictable basis for what they produce with exemplary hard work, innovation and dedication. Reliance seeks significant augmentation of their incomes on a sustainable basis, and pledge to work towards this goal. Indeed, we shall insist on our suppliers to strictly abide by the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism, and/or any other mechanism for remunerative price for farm produce, as may be determined and implemented by the government.
