The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday again requested the Centre to have the ‘Digital Addressable System’ license issued to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TACTV) without any further delay.
In a letter addressed to Union Finance and Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Arun Jaitley, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam pointed out that this was an issue on which the State government was “keenly expecting” an early decision from the Centre in view of the clear legal position and the strong merits of the case. The provision of licence would enable the State government to adhere to its commitment to provide “inexpensive and quality” cable TV services to people of Tamil Nadu, particularly the poor and the middle class, Mr. Pannerselvam argued in his letter.
M. Thambidurai, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan, TACTV Chairman, led a delegation of the AIADMK Members of Parliament and handed over the letter to Mr Jaitley.
He gave an elaborate account of the issue since the assumption of office by the AIADMK government led by Jayalalithaa in May 2011. He recalled that Ms Jayalalithaa, as Chief Minister, mentioned the issue in a memorandum presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and subsequently, she wrote a letter to the then Union Minister for I&B Prakash Javadekar. He also pointed out that an Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC), constituted by the Union Ministry of I & B in January 2013 to look into the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the overall issue of licensing, had not yet submitted its final report. The updated status on the Cabinet Secretariat’s website on pending issues of State governments with the Union government still indicated that the matter was under consideration of the IMC.
He added that now, the TACTV was providing cable TV services in 31 of 32 districts of the State, through nearly 24,000 local cable operators, to 65 lakh individual subscribers.
