Amid growing concern over incidents of vandalism of around 2,000 Reliance Jio Infocomm cell phone towers, allegedly by groups of protesting farmers, state police have spread out into affected districts to restore power to these towers.
On Tuesday, the day after he issued a stern warning to those vandalizing mobile towers, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told The Indian Express: “I have ordered the police to take action against those vandalizing the towers. mobiles. I will not allow anyone to do justice to his hands. The situation is under control now. “
While the CM said that “only 4-5 cases of vandalism have come to light in the last 24 hours,” sources said the government has taken serious note of the incidents. “There is a lot of concern in the government about this disruption, particularly in light of the continuing stalemate between the Center and protesting farmers. Nobody in the state wants the situation to get out of control, “said a senior official.
Although company sources said that in addition to around 2,000 towers, several base transceiver stations and fiber optic cables in the state have also been vandalized, senior police officers maintained that in most cases there was little damage. in the towers, with the vandals, supposedly local youth. supported by gram panchayat members, only pointing to power supply lines to the towers.
District police chiefs have organized patrols to monitor the towers and say their immediate concern is to restore the towers to function. In most districts, the police claimed to have restored 80% of the affected towers to operation.
Police have not yet registered any FIRs in these cases despite videos and photographs showing youths climbing the towers.
Most of the affected towers are in 10 districts of the state: Bathinda, Mansa, Nawanshar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Batala, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Ferozepur.
Bhupinderjit Virk, chief superintendent of police for Bathinda, where the power supply to 60 towers was broken, said no FIRs have been recorded as only power lines were cut. “No damage was reported (to the towers). Therefore, we have not submitted any FIR. Power has been restored to 29 of the 60 towers, and our teams are advising the villagers not to indulge in such acts. ”
Viveksheel Soni, SSP of Sangrur, also said that no FIR had been presented as there was no damage to the infrastructure. “The power supply had only been connected to more than 70 mobile towers and by Tuesday afternoon, 49 were working,” he said, adding, “Jio did not give us in writing any specific reason why his towers were down. “.
The sources said that on Tuesday, senior Jio executives met with senior government and police officials in the state to seek protection for the tower sites, as well as other telecommunications infrastructure.
“Some of our executives on the ground were forced to return when they went to repair the vandalized mobile tower sites. We have informed the officials of the situation and have sought protection, since telecommunications are within essential services, “said one of the people who attended the meeting, adding that he hopes the situation will be under control on Wednesday or Thursday. .
With the power supply to Jio’s cell phone towers cut off, the immediate impact is likely to be felt on voice calls originating from and reaching the telecommunications network. The company uses VoLTE or Voice over Long Term Evolution technology, which means that even voice calls are treated like all other data packets going in and out of mobile phones. But with about 1,800 towers (out of the company’s total 9,000 towers in the state) vandalized, the quality of these calls and Internet data speeds for 4G are likely to be temporarily affected.
Company executives said their biggest concern was damage to fiber optic cables. “In such cases, the fiber optic cables must be completely replaced because they can rarely be repaired. This could have a long-term impact on connectivity in the state, ”said a senior executive.
Meanwhile, the farmers’ leaders, while appealing to their workers not to damage any property, have said that they will not tolerate any cases of vandalism being registered against them.
Buta Singh Burjgill, Chairman of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda faction), said: “I repeat once again, our focus should only be on boycotting Jio’s SIMs. Do not resort to violent means, do not even take power. However, if the police present an FIR, we will support our villagers. ”
Shingaara Singh, Vice President of BKU (Ugrahan), maintained that their fight was peaceful. “We are educating the people in the villages, telling them that breaking power lines or damaging the towers is of no benefit to anyone, as people depend on the Internet. Now the power supply to many towers is being restored and the villagers are not opposed.
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