Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the application of state-run Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd (TACTV) for 'Digital Addressable System' license, which is pending before the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Earlier J Jayalalithaa had also brought the issue of DAS license to Arasu in her memorandum to the PM. She had also written a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on the issue.
In a letter to Mr Modi, Ms. Jayalalithaa pointed out that the previous UPA regime sanctioned licenses to nine Multi System Operators in Tamil Nadu, but did not respond to the state’s plea.
She reiterated that her government revived the ‘defunct’ Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TACTV), a state run TV Cable Corporation after coming to power in 2011 to adhere to its commitment to provide inexpensive and quality Cable TV services.
“I request you to kindly have this matter reviewed at the earliest and arrange to issue the digital addressable system licence to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd without any further loss of time,” Jayalalithaa wrote in her letter to Modi.
Arasu, Jayalalithaa said, is providing cable TV services in 31 of the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu. It provides a package of 100 channels to subscribers at a cost of Rs 70 per month, the lowest rate anywhere in the country. The MSO provides signal to 24,000 local cable operators (LCOs) with a subscriber base of 65 lakh (6.5 million).
After the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 was amended, paving way for DAS, TACTV took steps to commence operations in the digital mode in Chennai and applied to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for DAS license.
As per the provisions of the Cable TV Network (Regulations) Act, 1995, and Rules thereof, TACTV is qualified for such a licence, he asserted and alleged that it strongly suspected that the non-issuance of license to by the previous UPA Government was only to facilitate particular private business interests.
TACTV, an initiative of the previous DMK government at the height of family feud in the party’s first family involving M Karunanidhi and his grandnephews, Maran brothers, was however later put in cold storage after they patched up.
Arasu had applied for DAS licence on 5 July 2012 for operating in Chennai and on 23 November 2012 for operating in the rest of Tamil Nadu.
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/5422-cq-jayalalithaa-urges-modi-for-das-license-to-arasu.html
No comments:
Post a Comment