I&B Ministry hope WB cable operators will fall in line

She may have opposed cable TV digitisation deadline in Kolkata but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had herself ordered set top boxes for the state secretariat, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today claimed. This, he contended, reflects her support for digitisation process which is beneficial for both consumers and the industry.

"If I am correct, I read that she had placed order for set top boxes for Writers Building the day the deadline came to an end. This clearly shows that the digitisation process is a good move for the consumers and the sector as a whole," Tewari told reporters here.

Asked if the government was contemplating action against the cable operators (MSOs) there and the state government for not adhering to the deadline, he said "we have been patient and we would expect that the state governments and MSOs concerned do honour the deadline".

While he said that already 18.57 lakh cable TV homes in Kolkata are digitised, I&B secretary Uday Kumar Varma said 93 per cent of the digitisation is already complete in Kolkata. "It is a matter of days for achieving digitisation," he said.

The deadline in the four metros had ended on October 31, but cable homes in Kolkata, who had not switched over to digitisation, still continue to receive analogue signals, it is alleged. In all 74.98 lakhs cable TV households in the four metros have gone for digitisation. Of this, the number is 23.44 lakh in Mumbai and 30.31 lakh in Delhi.