Special teams to survey cable connections

As digitisation deadline gets over,cable TV operators not complying with govt order set to face action.

The entertainment branch of the Pune district collectorate has decided to form special squads that will conduct a survey to see if the district is complying with the governments directive to mandatorily install set-top boxes for cable TV viewing. With the deadline for this ending on Sunday,Tehshildar Geetanjali Shirke said they would be collecting declaration from cable operators about the number of set-top boxes installed by them.

Pune,along with several other cities,was included in Phase II of the digitisation switchover move initiated by the Union Ministry for Information and Broadcasting.

Talking to Newsline,Shirke said they had called a special meeting with all cable operators to take stock of the number of set-top boxes installed. We have been conducting regular meetings with the cable operators,asking them to speed up the switchover as no extension of the deadline is in the offing. A majority of the cable operators have managed to go fully digital, she claimed.

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The special squads would be conducting surprise checks to see if the cable operators are ensuring compliance with the order. We would be taking criminal action against the cable operators who have failed to switch over, she said.

Meanwhile,a senior officer from the entertainment branch said they expected a steep rise in the number of cable connections in the city.

Thanks to the digitisation process,we would be able to plug the loopholes and get a perfect figure. At present,both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad have 1.75 lakh cable connections and we expect it would have crossed 2.5 lakh, he said.

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