New Delhi: Even as the country marches towards total cable television digitization, Additional District Magistrates have been designated as authorised officers to exercise the powers conferred upon them under the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.

The powers are to be exercised ‘within the local limits of their jurisdiction’.The Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued a gazette notification on 7 March to this effect.

The notification says that the Central Government has issued the orders “in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of section 2 of the Act”. However, the powers given to the ADMs will not apply to Section Five relating to the Programme Code and Section Six relating to the Advertising Code.

Complaints relating to the Programme and Advertising Code are generally handled by the inter-ministerial committee or the self-regulatory bodies of the News Broadcasting Association, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and the Advertising Standards Council of India.