RIL denies any intention of involvement in corporate or contract farming anywhere in India

MUKESH Ambani promoted RELIANCE JIO has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court located at Chandigarh urging it to direct the Punjab government to stop the continuous vandalism of its infrastructure in the state. In its petition it said 1,504 Jio towers in Punjab representing  15 per cent of the total number and similar outages have been reported for 85 Jio towers in Haryana have been damaged. The company alleged that the vandalism has endangered the lives of its employees and disrupted its communication setup.  Jio said that the miscreants have been indulged by people with vested interests under the garb of the ongoing farmer protests. 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 have brushed aside the accusation as baseless, false and outrageous. Airtel has informed the  Department of Telecom denying any hand in the ongoing issues that the Reliance Jio is facing in the northern states and urged the DoT to dismiss it forthwith.