SHILLONG: Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Manoj Kumar Pingua has said that there is lack of awareness among the stakeholders, consumers and officers in the northeast about the Cable TV digitization programme.
Speaking to media persons after a workshop with nodal officers and multi system operators of Northeastern states here on Thursday Pingua rued that seeding of set top boxes in some of the states is not up to the mark and the Ministry has asked the states to complete the process at the earliest.
“After the expiry of the cut-off date of the Cable TV digitization, no signal can be transmitted or re-transmitted unless it is encrypted and digitised,” he said.
While pointing out that ditigization of Cable TV is the first step, he added that many more initiatives including online grievances redressal system and subscriber management system will soon be put in place.
Pingua added that the deadline for cable TV operators for shifting to the digital mode is already over and it is up to the local authorities to decide how much time they want to give to the defaulters and any action in this regard has to be taken by the authorised local officers.
“The district magistrates, ADMs and police are empowered to take action (against defaulters) but since there was lack of awareness, it is up to the authorities to decide on when they want to take action against the defaulters,” he said.
The workshop for all stakeholders was organised to spread awareness on the need to provide only digitally encrypted signals.
Earlier, while addressing the meeting with the nodal officers and MSOs of Northeastern states on Cable TV digitization, Pingua said despite the deadline, there are still some gaps in terms of putting the cable TV network on the digital platform in the eight Northeastern states.
Looking at the seeding status of set top box in Northeastern states, he said that both Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have managed to achieve a target of 144 per cent followed by Nagaland with 105 per cent, Assam with 94 per cent, Mizoram with 80 per cent, Meghalaya with 69 per cent, Tripura with 49 per cent and Manipur with 29 per cent.
He said that TV channels and platforms have to adhere to programme and advertisement code under Section 5 and Section 6 of the Cable TV Network Act.
