‘Absolutely No Plans To Enter Contract Farming, Won't Purchase Any Agricultural Land,’ Says Reliance Industries

In a petition intended to be filed in Punjab and Haryana High Court, the company has sought the urgent intervention of Government authorities to bring a “complete stop” to the acts of vandalism

(PTI)

New Delhi: Days after alleged vandalism on its service towers in Punjab, Reliance Industries Limited on Monday clarified that it has no plans of entering agriculture business, contract or corporate farming. It also said it had never bought agricultural land for corporate farming or contract farming and had no plans to do so. “Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), or any other affiliate of our parent company, i.e., Reliance Industries Limited have not done any corporate or contract farming in the past, and have absolutely no plans to enter this business,” the conglomerate said in a statement. In a petition to be filed in Punjab and Haryana High Court, the company has sought the urgent intervention of authorities to bring a “complete stop” to the acts of vandalism, which it said, have endangered the lives of thousands of its employees and caused damage and disruption to the vital communications infrastructure, sales and service outlets run by its subsidiaries in the two states. “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,” it stated. It said it has never entered into long-term procurement contracts to gain unfair advantage over farmers or sought that its suppliers buy from farmers at less than remunerative prices, nor will it ever do so. As per reports, over 1,500 telecom towers owned by Jio were damaged in Punjab, which has led to disruption in services in several parts of the state. As per a PTI report, power supply to towers that relay telecom signals was snapped and cables cut in many parts of Punjab. Last month also, the company had alleged hat there are "blatant efforts" to sabotage its network in the garb of farmers' protest by the channel partners of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Reacting to it, Bharti Airtel had said that the claims are "baseless and outrageous".