Arasu licence still under consideration, says Tewari

Chennai:
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Saturday said that his ministry has neither rejected nor granted the Digital Addressable System licence to Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation and the issue is still under consideration.

Addressing reporters here on Saturday, the Union minister said the issue is before the inter-ministerial committee and the Information and Broadcasting ministry is awaiting its recommendations.

Interestingly, his statement comes in the wake of Tamil Nadu Government urging the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to issue the Digital Addressable System licence to Arasu Cable TV.

Tewari said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended in 2008 not to give licences to state-owned firms to run cable television networks. Interestingly, the Union government issued a conditional access system (CAS) licence to the Arasu Cable TV Corporation for Chennai on April 2, 2008 and the CAS services are still in operation. The Government subsequently modified Chennai into a Digital Addressable System area.

Surprisingly, Tewari said these recommendations were not acted upon for the last four years. “We sent Arasu’s plea for licence to TRAI for a fresh look and it recommended against granting licence to state owned firms. Now the issue is under the purview of inter-ministerial committee,” Tewari said. 

Currently, the television sets of more than 20 lakh households in the Chennai Metropolitan Area faces the threat of being blacked out after Madras High Court orally refused to extend the deadline for installation of set top boxes (STBs) in Chennai City

Tewari said the Union ministry is getting into the second phase of Digital Addressable System in 38 cities. “We will also be addressing shortcomings, if any in the first phase,” he added.