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"We assured Mr Khurana that the cable operators would not
raise the monthly cable subscription fee and the consumers would
continue to pay the same amount as they are paying now," COUF’s
Tejender Chawla said after the meting today, confirming that the
consumers would not be harassed.
Khurana, who is making a bid for the chief ministership of Delhi
in the ensuing state elections later this year, has been one of
the staunchest opponents of CAS rollout in Delhi. Surprisingly,
he had found an ally in the Congress chief minister, Shiela Dikshit,
on the issue of CAS.
The COUF delegation assured Khurana that a backlash from the cable
community against the government decision is highly unlikely; and
even if that happens, it would be limited to some independent cable
ops who have their own agenda.
COUF is one of the cable organisations that has been maintaining
that providing the basic tier of service for Rs 72 (excluding taxes)
in a post-CAS regime would be economically untenable for cable operators.
The organisation had been demanding that the price be fixed at Rs
180 per month.
Meanwhile, a meeting that was to be held by cable operators in
Mumbai turned out to be a non-CAS event where some other issues
were discussed.
Even in Delhi some of the MSOs and cable ops, who had threatened
agitation today, decided to hold back and follow the wait-and-watch
policy. A senior executive of an MSO said here, "We are waiting
to see what is the reaction in Mumbai and Kolkata before we chart
out a future course of action."
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