Weeks after the DMK government withdrew the Cable TV Bill, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa has criticised the move saying that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was more concerned in protecting his “family interests than that of the people”.
The Bill was moved by the previous AIADMK regime after purported complaints from MSOs in the state. The express purpose of the Bill was to “empower the state to take over MSOs who were monopolising cable TV business”.
The people of Chennai need to see any channels they liked without any restriction, the former chief minister said calling the CAS system an “injustice to the people”. CAS has been only implemented in Chennai in the entire country.
Union IT and Communications minister Dayanidhi Maran’s brother Kalanidhi Maran owns the leading cable TV operator in the city, Sumangali Cable Vision. It was with the idea of countering Mr Maran’s dominance of the Cable TV business that Amma had moved the Bill. But the present government had scrapped that Bill.
The former CM also alleged that Governor Surjit Singh Barnala functioned like “a puppet” of the state government. The governor was recently given extension to continue in office for another four years.