After some miscreants damaged mobile network towers in Haryana attributing COVID-19 fatalities to the testing of 5G towers, Haryana Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan asked the police on Thursday to "safeguard telecom infrastructure" and "take strict, coercive, and immediate action against any miscreant spreading such misleading rumours." "The World Health Organisation (WHO) has clarified that such rumours are misplaced as viruses cannot travel on radio wave/mobile network. Other concerned organisations have also debunked such claims. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), GoI in its press statement dated 10.5.2021, has clarified that linking 5G network technology with the COVID-19 pandemic has no scientific basis. Besides, the testing of 5G network has not yet started in India. Hence, the apprehension that 5G trials/networks are causing coronavirus in India is baseless and devoid of any merit." - Haryana Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan in the order TAIPA writes to the chief secretary: The order comes a day after the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) wrote to the chief secretary highlighting the rumours on social media linking the spread of Covid-19 with telecom networks and 5G network testing, Times of India (TOI) reported. TAIPA senior manager Rahul Dhall told TOI that four towers were damaged in the last ten days, especially in the districts of Jind and Rohtak in Haryana. TAIPA also said that these rumours were resulting in protests against the installation of telecom towers. "Such incidents, if not brought under control, may significantly impact the telecom connectivity at large and deprive the general public/government bodies…
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