Telecom tower damage: High Court issues notice to Punjab, Centre on Reliance Jio plea
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Punjab government and the Centre on a plea filed by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, seeking action against "miscreants" damaging its telecom infrastructure and forcibly closing its stores in the state.
During the ongoing agitation by farmers against three new farm laws enacted by the Centre, over 1500 mobile towers in Punjab have ben damaged.
Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, on Monday, submitted in its plea that "vested" interests are engaged in spreading "false rumours" against it and that the petitioner, its parent company and its affiliates had no plans to enter corporate or contract farming.
Justice Sudhir Mittal has issued notice of motion for February 8, according to Aashish Mittal, the counsel for Reliance Jio.
The company has made the state of Punjab through its chief secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Telecommunications and the Punjab Director General of Police as respondents in the matter.
In the civil writ petition, Reliance Jio has also sought appropriate directions to respondents for investigation into the well-orchestrated and sustained disinformation campaign being carried out by vested interests and miscreants against it.
In the petition, the company has stated that in the past few weeks, its over 1,500 telecom towers were damaged or rendered inoperative by miscreants crippling its mobile network in Punjab.
A number of its centres and stores were also forcibly closed by miscreants by using illegal force and intimidation, it submitted.
The petitioner submitted that its subscribers were being forced to port to other networks, while its employees were being subjected to grave threat to life and forcibly prevented from serving subscribers in the state.
According to the petition, vested interests inimical to the petitioner and its parent company Reliance Industries, are engaged in spreading false rumours to the effect that the petitioner and its affiliates were somehow a beneficiary of recent legislation passed by Parliament governing marketing of agricultural produce.
In a statement, Reliance said it "has nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently debated in the country, and in no way benefits from them .
The company also sought constitution of a competent authority under the Punjab Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Act for the assessment of losses caused to it.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
