Acting against the analogue cable operators

Requesting that only digital encrypted signals can be carried on the cable TV network, the government implemented this rule from 1^st April this year.

Now the carriage of analogue signals and/or unencrypted signals is a violation of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995 for which authorised officers (District Magistrate, Sub Divisional Magistrate and Commissioner of Police) have powers to seize the equipment of the defaulting cable operators.

There has been a large number of complaints to the ministry, alleging that analogue signals still are being transmitted by some of the cable operators, I&B Additional Secretary Jayashree Mukherjee said in a letter to the chief secretaries of states and UTs.

Mukherjee observed that the complaints were being sent to the officers concerned for taking immediate necessary action, but no response was being received in most of the cases.

She said in the letter to chief secretaries: "I once gain request you to direct all the DMs in your state to take action within their powers against the defaulters."