Punjab Governor Vijayender Pal Singh Badnore has on Wednesday taken a serious note of the vandalism during the ongoing protest of farmers, wherein over 1600 Reliance Jio mobile towers have been damaged in the past few days. Badnore has summoned Punjab's Chief Secretary and DGP to Raj Bhavan to seek a report.
"Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore took a serious note of vandalism during the ongoing protest of farmers, wherein over 1600 mobile towers have been damaged in the past few days. The Punjab Governor has decided to summon the Chief Secretary and DGP to Raj Bhavan to seek a report and to express his serious concerns on the matter," Raj Bhavan said.
"A representation was handed by the top BJP leaders of Punjab to Governor today, detailing violence & obstructions that the BJP leaders and party workers have been subjected during these protests and the failure of the law enforcement agencies in preventing it," it added.
Reliance Jio Infocomm had earlier written to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) seeking their intervention into "incidents of sabotage and vandalism at Jio Network sites" in the state.
The letter alleged that police personnel at the local level are not taking action or filing FIRs against vandalism and that is why such incidents are not stopping. Jio has requested the DGP to take action.
"With due respect we would like to bring to your kind notice that in your esteemed State of Punjab, the telecom intrastructure and digital services of Reliance Jio are being sabotaged and vandalized for the past few weeks by inciting violence and our employees are not being allowed to work to provide the uninterrupted telecom services, which is an essential service for the people of Punjab," Reliance Jio Infocomm stated in its letter to the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister had on Monday directed police to take strict action against vandalisation of mobile towers and disruption of telecom services in the state.
Asserting that he will not let Punjab plunge into an anarchy at any cost and nobody can be allowed to take the law into their hands, the Chief Minister had forced to toughen his stance as his repeated appeals to perpetrators of such acts were ignored.
Pointing out that his government had not objected to, or stopped, peaceful protests in the state against the Centre's "black farm laws" for the past several months, Singh said in a statement that damage to property and inconvenience to the citizens could not, however, be endured.
"The farmers' agitation had so far been successful and had garnered the support of people from all sections of the society and across the country due to its peaceful nature," said the Chief Minister, warning that use of violence could alienate the protestors from the masses which would be detrimental to the interests of the farming community.
(With PTI inputs)
