Putting brakes on the Centre’s cable TV digitization plan, the Madras high court extended the deadline in Chennai from October 31 to November 5. An interim order to this effect was passed by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar on a petition filed by the Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators Association.
The petition, noting that repeated requests for extension of the deadline was not acceded to by the Centre, claimed that in Chennai only 1.64 lakh homes had STBs and more than 30 lakh homes would go blank from November 1 if the deadline was not extended. The petition also said that which said there were not enough set top boxes (STB) to be distributed to all households.
Noting that the Tamil Nadu government’s Arasu Cable Television has entered as 11th multi-system operator (MSO) in the state, the association said Arasu has invited tenders for supply of 10 lakh STBs to meet 25% of the city’s requirement. Arasu is still in the process of finalizing the tender, and even if the delivery of STBs commences now, it will take at least two years for the process to be completed, it said.
It wanted the court to stay total implementation of the digital access system (DAS) in Chennai till the corresponding infrastructure is made available. S Haja Mohideed Gisthi, senior central government standing counsel, however, opposed any extension of the deadline saying the petition had been filed in the eleventh hour. Ever since the policy was unveiled in January 2011, the deadline had been extended thrice, Gisthi said. Noting that the Centre had entered into an agreement with 11 MSOs in the city and it was their duty to provide sufficient STBs, he said already 62% of installation was over.
Under the Centre’s proposal, implementation of DAS was to be completed in Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai and Chennai by October 31.
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