CHANDIGARH: In response to reports of power outages to various mobile towers across the state, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday he called on protesting farmers not to upset the general public with such actions, but to continue to exercise the same restraint they had been showing during the past months of turmoil.
The appeal came from a request from the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), a registered agency of Telecommunications infrastructure providers, calling on the state government to convince farmers not to resort to any illegal activity in their fight for justice.
Pointing out that telecommunications connectivity had become even more critical of people in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemicAmarinder urged farmers to show the same discipline and sense of responsibility that they had been exercising during their month-long protest on the Delhi border, and also earlier during their upheaval in the state.
Urging farmers not to take the law into their own hands by forcibly shutting down telecom connectivity or mistreating employees / technicians of telecom service providers, Amarinder said such actions are not in the interest of Punjab and its future. He said that the people of Punjab had stood by the farmers’ side in their fight against the Black Farm Laws, and would continue to do so. He asked the peasants to reciprocate by ensuring that the battle for justice does not cause any problems for the people of the state.
“The forced interruption of telecommunications services due to the interruption of the power supply to mobile towers by farmers in various parts of the state not only negatively affected the studies and future prospects of students, who depend entirely on the online education, but also hampered the daily lives of people working from home due to the pandemic, ”said Amarinder. Furthermore, he said, the interruption of telecommunications services would also seriously affect the state’s already troubled economy.
Amarinder noted that the prolonged economic crisis, which would be aggravated as a result of the interruption of telecommunications service in the state, would have a triggering effect on the agricultural sectoras well as the farming community as well. The effects would be detrimental to all sections, he said, adding that such actions would negatively affect his government’s efforts to attract more investment in the telecommunications sector as part of its recently announced New Telecommunications Guidelines 2020, which also aimed to improve telecommunications connectivity in the state.
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