NEW DELHI: Reiterating that action was taken against telecasting of unpermitted television channels, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Vekaiaih Naidu said today that such complaints were received against some cable operators from some districts such as Kurnool and Aurangabad regarding carriage of Peace TV channel.
He told the Rajya Sabha that the complaints were forwarded to the District Collector for necessary action by the authorized officers under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and Rules 1994.
“They have reportedly taken action”, the Minister added in reply to a question.
The Ministry has also invited complaints by the general public regarding transmission of unpermitted satellite TV channels by cable operators on its social media platforms. These are also forwarded to the District Collectors for necessary action.
Whenever instances are brought to the notice of thr Ministry regarding Uplinking of unpermitted TV channels through any Indian teleport, action is taken to stop the same as per the provisions of Uplinking guidelines 2011, he said.
He said that the Cable Act and Cable Rules regulates the transmission and re-transmission of TV channels over the Cable Networks. The Authorized Officers (the District Magistrates, the Additional District Magistrates, the Sub-Divisional Magistrates and the Commissioners of Police within their territorial jurisdiction) under the Act are empowered to take action whenever violations of the Cable Act, 1995 are brought to notice.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made recommendations on the regulation of ground channels in this regard.
Meanwhile, he said his Ministry had on 8 July 2016 issued advisories to the State Governments and Union Territories, the District Collectors and the MSOs/LCOs that no unpermitted satellite channel such as Peace TV should be carried by the cable operators in the country.
In addition, the Ministry has issued advisories from time to time to the State Governments and Union Territories to constitute State and District Level Monitoring Committees for recommending action against broadcast content being carried by the cable operators which are in violation of the Programme Code and the Advertisement Code under the Cable Act 1995.
The Ministry has mandated Digitization of the entire cable network in the country by December, 2016 in a phased manner through the introduction of the Digital Addressable Systems (DAS). This measure is expected to address the issues of transmission of unpermitted TV channels, he added.
