Worried that implementation of conditional access system may become a reason for hostility with the states specially after the fiasco in the metros, the Centre has decided to make it mandatory to obtain concurrence of all state governments before implementing it in other cities and towns.
"CAS is a consumer-friendly move. It should not become the object of Centre-state hostility," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
With CAS failing to take off in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, the information and broadcasting ministry is now considering an amendment in the cable law to make it mandatory to take state government's concurrence before going ahead with it, sources said.
They said the process of consultations with states was already on in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, which have been notified for the zone-wise implementation of CAS from September 1.
The Centre is in no mood to take on the states over CAS and hopes to resolve any differences over it at a secretary level meeting convened by secretary, information and broadcasting on September 15.
Though the government does not plan to roll-back CAS, it cannot at present rule out the option of coming out with fresh dates for Mumbai and Kolkata, where the central law has virtually been defied following its deferment in Delhi.
Facing opposition to CAS from its major ally Shiv Sena in Mumbai, Prasad is in touch with party supremo Bal Thackeray as well as West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who has asked for time till the Durga puja festival is over, sources said.
The Centre is of the view that multi-system operators like Hathway and RPG have come out with attractive incentive packages and left to market forces CAS would be a consumer-friendly regime.
It may be clear by September 20 whether the government has to take a decision on cancelling the present notification and come out with fresh dates for the metros, including Delhi, where it was deferred till assembly elections due to political pressures.
Additional secretary, information and broadcasting, Vijay Singh is in Chennai to assess the situation in the metro, which sees itself as the guinea pig for being the only one to have implemented CAS.
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