Farmers’ protest: Power to 1,561 mobile towers disrupted, connectivity hit

New Delhi, Dec 29: Telecom services have been disrupted in Punjab after 1,500 phone were vandalised. A government spokesperson said that 146 towers were impacted since Monday due to power supply disruption, while the others have been physically damaged.

He also said that some of the farmers protesting against the three farm laws disrupted power supply to 1,561 mobile phone towers in the state. So far, 433 towers have been repaired. The state has 2,13,06 mobile towers spread across 22 districts.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said that 1,561 mobile towers have been "impacted" in the state during the farmers' stir against the agri laws and directed the police to take strict action against vandalisation and disruption of telecom services.

Asserting that he will not let Punjab plunge into anarchy at any cost and nobody can be allowed to take the law into their hands, the chief minister said he has been forced to toughen his stance as his repeated appeals to perpetrators of such acts had been ignored.

The chief minister said that the general public including students, professionals working from home and banking services would suffer the most if the mobile services were disrupted and warned that the use of violence could alienate the protestors from the masses which would be detrimental to the interests of the farming community.

A total of 1,561 mobile towers have been impacted in the state, according to an official statement. The state has a total of 21,306 mobile towers spread across its 22 districts.

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 here that damage to property and inconvenience to the citizens could not, however, be endured.

Since Monday morning there was a disruption of power supply to 32 towers, which led to the disconnection of services of 114 more. So far, 433 towers have been repaired, according to the official statement.

Amid reports that the power supply to mobile towers was being disconnected allegedly by protesting farmers in different parts of the state during the past few days, Amarinder Singh had earlier on Friday appealed to them to not inconvenience the general public with such actions.

Such incidents were reported from Mansa, Barnala, Ferozepur and Moga with mobile towers of a particular telecom operator being targeted during the past few days, disrupting their services.