Chennai : In a bid to put pressure on the State owned Cable TV Network, the Tamil Nadu Cable TV Operators Association (TCOA) has directly approached the Central Government to intervene and put an end to the high handedness of the Tamil Nadu Government’s Arasu Cable Network.
The newly elected President of the TCOA – Mr. Kanyakumari Arumugam had met the Union Minister Mr. Pon Radhakrishnan and submitted a petition, requesting the intervention of the Information and Broadcasting Minister Mr. Prakash Javadekar and protect the interest of their members by insisting Arasu Cable to Operate as per TRAI rules and regulations.
In its petition TCOA had alleged that the Arasu Cable is not following any of the rules and regulations of TRAI and operating on its own principles without considering any of their pleas. Arasu Cable have ditched the members of TCOA by refusing to fulfil the promises of Protecting the livelihood of the end operators (LCO) giving Quality Broadcast, Restriction of Monopoly in Distribution etc…
The Control Rooms owned by the LCO’s were taken over by the Arasu cable for a very meagre amount and the pricing of Rs 70 against the TRAI’s recommended rate of Rs 187 per cable home is extremely unviable and creating huge loses that forced hundreds of operators to quit the cable business.
The Petition added that the Arasu Cable is forcing the operators to declare a higher subscriber base on par with the number of Government issued ration cards, which is completely illogical. It is also not paying any maintenance charges for the LCO to meet the basic wear and tear expenses. on the other hand it is allowing the ruling party members and its channels to enjoy undue benefits.
Even though, the state owned Cable TV network managed to destroy the monopoly, it also failed to protect the interest of thousands of people who are depending on this business for decades together. Our efforts to reach the Tamilnadu CM and appeal for a solution has fallen in deaf years. Hence, in a situation where there is no other options left before us. we decided to knock the doors of the Central Government to intervene and instruct the state owned network to follow the rules and regulations of TRAI and help us to survive.
The Union Minster had accepted the petition from TCOA and assured them of doing the needful.
