India’s market leader Reliance Jio has called on courts in the Haryana and Punjab regions to take action to prevent further destruction of the operator’s infrastructure.
As reported by the Economic Times, some of Jio’s network infrastructure in these regions has been damaged by farmers as a protest against new agriculture legislation. According to TeleGeography, the farmers are acting on rumours that Jio’s parent Reliance Industries Limited will benefit directly from the new laws.
Reliance has stated that it “in no way benefits from” the new agriculture bills, and has accused its rivals of fomenting the rumours in order to associate it with the controversial legislation. It was even suggested that Jio’s fibre was targeted for vandalism in a deliberate ploy to push customers onto rival networks.
Jio’s main rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) have hit back against these allegations, calling them “baseless” and “fictional” while decrying the vandalism committed.