Issue DAS licence to Arasu Cable TV, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam urges Centre

As per the provisions of the Cable TV Network (Regulations) Act, 1995, and Rules thereof, the TACTV was “fully qualified” to be issued the license. “We strongly suspect that the non-issuance of license by the previous UPA Government was only to facilitate particular private business interests, as other lincenses were issued at the same time,” he said in a letter handed over to Union finance and information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley, by AIADMK MPs on Tuesday.

In fact, this issue was raised by former Chief Minister Ms. J. Jayalalithaa in a memorandum presented to the Prime Minister in June 2014 and she had also written to former Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting too.

This was an issue which the State Government was keenly expecting an early decision from the Centre in view of the clear legal position and the strong merits of the case, he said.

Mr Panneerselvam further stated that the updated status on the Cabinet Secretariat’s website on pending issues of state governments still indicated that the matter was under consideration of the Inter-Ministerial Committee.

“You would agree that nearly two years is an inordinate amount of time for an Inter-Ministerial Committee of officials to take to formulate a view on an issue of this nature,” he said urging for early issuance of license.