Cable Act adherence under watch

This has come after the government has observed that the enforcement of this act in many parts of the country was still not satisfactory and many states were yet to constitute such a committee and no state except Jammu and Kashmir has reported the constitution of a state level committee.

Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh is the chairman of the committee,while Rajendra Bhamare,police inspector of the Social Security Cell has been appointed as the nodal officer of the committee. Other committee members include Additional police commissioner (Crime),District Information Officer,Dr Sushma Keskar,professor at SNDT Arts and Commerce College,Dr Anuradha Sahasrabuddhe,director of Dnyandevi Child Line,Dr Sanjyot Deshpande a clinical psychologist and Prof Jagadish Chinchore,vice-principal of Modern College. The first meeting of the committee took place on Wednesday at the police commissioner office.

The committee will review and deliberate on the litany of complaints received by the authorized officer or take suo moto cognizance of the violations of programmes and advertising codes in the programmes transmitted and re-transmitted in the local cable channels.

“As per the Act,all the state-owned channels including DD1,DD News,DD Urdu,DD Sports,DD Dnyandarshan,DD Rajyasabha,DD Loksabha and DD Bharati are mandatory to be aired by the private cable operators in all the states of the country.

Besides this,as far as Maharashtra is concerned,airing DD Sahyadri is mandatory. Therefore,the committee will also monitor whether the availability of free to air channels and mandatory channels,” Bhamare said.

The term of the committee is for two years and shall not be eligible for renomination.

The committee will meet at least once a year and submit detailed annual report for the state,including the district-wise data of cable operators registered within the state and estimated number of TV homes in the state.