Kolkata, Aug 31: The West Bengal government today announced that CAS would not be implemented in the state from tomorrow as it had not received certain clarifications from the Centre, while the leading MSOs said they would abide by the state government's decision. ''CAS will not come into force in the state from tomorrow," said city police chief, Sujoy Chakraborty, who had a meeting with the three MSOs - RPG Netcom, Citicable and Manthan - during the day.
''The three MSOs have been told not to enforce CAS from midnight tonight and keep it in abeyance till the state government received the clarifications sought from the Centre,'' he said.
To a question, Chakraborty said no date has yet been fixed for implementing CAS in the state.
He said that after receiving the clarifications from the Centre, the state government would take a decision regarding implementation of CAS in the state and accordingly inform the MSOs. The director of RPG Netcom, a leading MSO, D K Sen, said that they would not implement CAS from tomorrow since the state government asked them to keep it in abeyance.
Sen said that he will however attend the meeting of Central CAS Implementation Committee in Delhi tomorrow.
Echoing him, Sudip Ghose, director of Manthan and Suresh Sethia of Citicable also said they would abide by the state government's decision.
Meanwhile, the Forum of Cable Operators demanded the formation of a committee immediately to consider the CAS issue and submit their report within a week considering all parameters of implementation. The general secretary of the organisation, Tarak Saha, said the committee should be consisted of representatives of state government, broadcasters, MSOs, cable operators and the subscribers' body.
He also demanded availability of set top boxes and its price should be made public by all MSOs with proper documents and pay channel price be frozen for one year to promote CAS.
He said a date with a clear notice of three weeks should be given to all concerned parties for complete implementation of CAS. Bureau Report