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Soni surprised at Trinamul TV protest

-The Telegraph

Ambika Soni today voiced surprise that Trinamul was protesting the June 30 deadline for digitisation of TV in Bengal despite the junior I&B minister being from that party and aware of the decision taken last year.

Both Houses of Parliament had passed the Cable Television Networks Regulation (amendment) Bill last December to ensure digitisation of TV transmission and distribution in the four metros by June 2012 and across the country by end 2014. Trinamul has 19 MPs.

“I am surprised because my minister of state is from the Trinamul Congress and he himself is fully on board and had answered questions on the consultative committee we had. The idea is to carry the country with us on this reform measure in the broadcasting sector,” Soni said.

Yesterday, Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim claimed in Delhi that the June 30 deadline would create problems for cable operators in the state and possibly spark law-and-order problems. “Why did they suddenly take a decision without informing the state government?”

Soni’s junior, Choudhury Mohan Jatua, is a senior Trinamul leader and knew of the digitisation proposal since early last year. “I knew about the deadline for digitisation. Ministry officials told me about it and they said they were going to meet the chief secretary and discuss the deadline soon,” he said.

“All this was told to me verbally. I knew it was coming quickly to Bengal. I do not know what the minister (Hakim) has said and why should I comment on it?”

In March, Jatua had said in reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha that Calcutta would be part of the first phase of digitisation.

“In the first phase, four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai will be shifted to digital addressable system by 30 June, 2012. Digitisation with addressability will bring in transparency in business transactions and address the issue of under declaration of subscriber base and plug loopholes in revenue loss,” he said.