WB govt kept in loop over digitalisation: I&B officials

New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) Amidst reports that the West Bengal government had reservations over digitalisation, Information and Broadcastng ministry officials today said that all stakeholders including states had been consulted during the formulation of the plan. "The proposal for digitalisation had been in the public domain for a long time and the amendments in the Cable TV Networks (Rules and Regulations) Act had also been passed unanimously in the parliament, so the ministry thinks that we have been taking every one along," said an official. When asked about reports that a West Bengal government minister Firhad Hakim had met Additional Secretary Rajiv Takru of the I and B ministry about his state being not consulted, officials said there had been several meetings and consultation rounds for digitalisation. "We have held six meeting between the various stakeholders and all state governments have been invited to these meetings and representatives from all of them have attended these meetings," the official said. Officials said that the question of not keeping the West Bengal government in the loop did not arise when one of its members C M Jatua was the Minister of State in the I&B ministry. "The Minister of State has been aware of the digitalisation project and he even was present in consultative committee meeting which was held last month," officials said. Sources said that the Ministry had also expected to meet senior officials of the West Bengal government in a meeting over digitalisation plan that was slated to be held last fortnight, but it was cancelled by the state officials. The I and B ministry's digitalisation plan is an ambitious project to phase out the Analogue phase in Indian Television. As per the digitalisation roadmap, the cable sector in all metros should be completely digitalised by June 30 this year.