NEW DELHI: Facing a strong backlash from protesting farmers, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Monday said they have never done “corporate or contract” farming and have absolutely no plans to enter the business.
“Neither Reliance nor any of our subsidiaries has purchased any agricultural land, directly or indirectly, in Punjab/Haryana or anywhere else in India, for the purpose of “corporate” or “contract” farming. We have absolutely no plans to do so,” RIL said.
Farmers across India, especially North India, have been protesting for over a month against the recently introduced three farm bills. According to the protesting farmers, the new bills are introduced to favour corporates, and RIL, along with the Adani Group, will emerge as the biggest beneficiaries.These accusations have led to boycott of Reliance Jio services by protesters.
However, things turned out of control when power supply at around 1,800 Jio towers in Punjab were either cut off or disconnected by local people. RIL, through its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, has also mentioned a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking urgent government intervention to stop the vandalism of its towers.
The company also accused business rivals of aiding and instigating miscreants indulging in vandalism. Reliance Jio had in fact written to the DoT that both the companies had been engaging in “malicious” misinformation campaign against Jio. However, rival telecom players Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea had previously refuted such accusations.
Calling farmers “’Anna data’ of 1.3 billion Indians, RIL reitsaid that Reliance Retail does not purchase any food grains directly from farmers. “We shall insist on our suppliers to strictly abide by the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism, and/or any other mechanism for remunerative price for farm produce, as may be determined and implemented by the government,” the company said, adding it would always support the farmers’ demand for a “fair and profitable price on a predictable basis”.