Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has urged Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar to expedite the issue of Digital Addressable System (DAS) licence to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation, so that people could have access to inexpensive and quality cable television services.
In a letter to Mr. Javadekar on Thursday, she said that the Corporation provided subscribers 100 channels at a cost of Rs. 70 a month. With a subscriber base of 65 lakh linked by 24,000 local cable operators, the Corporation was the single largest Multi System Operator (MSO) in the country. It applied to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for separate DAS licencses for operating in Chennai city and in the rest of the State in 2012, but the applications were pending.
Despite a delegation of MPs meeting the then Union Ministers of Information and Broadcasting and the former Prime Minister, the licence was not granted, she said.
Maintaining that the Corporation was eligible for the licence under the law, Ms. Jayalalithaa said she “strongly suspected” that the non-issue of the licence by the previous government was only to “facilitate particular private business interests,” as other licences were issued. She urged the Minister to grant the licence expeditiously so that the people of the State could avail themselves of the inexpensive and quality cable TV services.
