I&B MINISTRY MONITORS CAS PREPAREDNESS
LOK SABHA
The Minister of Information
& Broadcasting, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad said that officers
of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting visited the
metros Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to assess the preparedness
for CAS and have, inter-alia, observed that the demand of Set
Top Box (STB) at first stage would be met by imports and procurement
of STBs is in progress and more in the process of being received,
while training of local cable operators is in progress. The indigenous
industry has not yet geared itself to meet the demand and some
MSOs have already offered attractive introductory schemes of making
available of STBs on installments/hire-purchase/rental basis and
have declared that they would be able to show approx. 60 free-to-air
channels within the maximum price of Rs. 72/- (plus taxes) the
officers further observed.
Replying to a question
by Shri Prakash V. Patil in Lok Sabha today, Shri Prasad said
that it has been decided to implement the CAS in a phased zone-wise
manner in the three metros of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai and at
one go in Chennai w.e.f 1st September 2003. The intervening
period is being used to step up the preparedness, to educate the
consumers and to closely monitor the procurement and availability
of the STBs. An ‘Implementation Committee’ under the Chairmanship
of Additional Secretary in the Ministry, has also been constituted,
with representatives of broadcasters/MSOs, Cable Operators, etc.
This will closely
monitor, availability of STBs and their readiness for installations,
modalities of installation (including testing), upgradation of
infrastructure and network for implementations of CAS and steps
taken to protect the interests of the consumers and availability
of full information in respect of pricing of channels and the
amount that cable T.V. subscribers will have to pay etc. The Ministry
has also launched a multi-media publicity campaign through advertisements
in all the leading dailies of the country, through electronic
media and through advertisements. The period for duty reduction
has been extended upto 30th September, 2003 so as to
ensure availability of STBs at affordable prices, the Minister
added.
