CABLE OPERATOR ASSOCIATION OF GUJARAT B-1 JAY APPARTMENT, OPP. GOVT. DUS BUNGLA, GULBAI TEKRA, AHMEDABAD 380015 Tele: 079-26448888 Mobile: 09913733388 Email: [email protected] Reg. No. F/15344/Ahmedabad Date: .19.9.2014 To Shree Narendra Modi Honourable Prime Minister of India P.M.Office South Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi-110011. SUBJECT: Regarding the problems and difficulties being faced by the CABLE OPERATORS (LCOs) all over India. JAI HIND! We LCOs ( Cable Operators) of Gujarat and on behalf of all India LCOs would like to bring into your notice with all due respect to TRAI, that we are having difficulties and get into problems due to frequent amendments and Regulation & alterations made by TRAI. Since the TRAI has introduced the Regulation of (DAS) Digital Addressable System is implemented all the LCOs of India which in number is over 125,000, are being dragged towards business and financial loss and soon on implementation of this Regulation all LCOs will get ruined in business and all who are dependent on them like innocent simple people working for LCOs will be jobless who does not have any other way of earnings or do not have any other know how through which they can make their living, as a result families of LCOs and workers depending on them will be ruined for no fair reason but just for the reason of new Regulation by TRAI which is openly supporting the corporate who have just recently entered in this trade and industry, and this one sided support given by TRAI will soon erase and swipe off the LCOs from the Cable Service Industry, who are the pioneers of this industry and have given their blood and sweat to plant the Industry. When it is time to harvest the crop they have cultivated, TRAI is making Regulations which will make LCOs disappear from the Industry. The hard work and their hard earned money will be just transferred to new corporate who have just entered the business and Industry. How could this happen under your Leadership. This business is only thing which provides bread to over 125,000 LCOs and their workers. This regulation is indirectly taking away their right to do business and feed their families and dependent community on the industry. Till today LCOs are giving successful services to the people of India and just by giving the illusive reason of modernisation and giving quality services to the public, all these people could be swiped out from the Industry for favouring the corporate in the industry who have just recently entered. LCOs do not have any problems with the modernisation and providing better services to people and end customers, LCOs are very much happy to accept the same so far as it is done in a way that it brings modernisation and quality control which is reasonable and justified. Modernisation does not mean that only big fish comes and eats up the small ones. Our request is only that LCOs of the country should be given the main role, people who have put their sweat and blood to plant the entire industry. LCOs have been serving the people of India for decades and they have created this trade and industry even when there were no broadcasters or big business groups or corporate entered in this industry. LCOs are the Father and Mother of this industry and how can any authority keep them oversight while making any regulation. How can any authority indirectly transfer the hard earned invested millions and billions of rupees to any third parties or organisation in the name of modernisation or providing quality services? The new amendments and regulations made by TRAI is doing that indirectly it is transferring the hard earned and invested revenue of LCOs to third parties and organisation who are big fishes who have entered long after LCOs started and planted the industry and developed it putting in all their savings and earnings and brought it up to today’s level. LCOs have worked day and night in heavy rains, under hot sun and tough winters and have spread the cable network over all cities, towns and villages of India and when the time has come to harvest their hard work TRAI is bringing in such regulations that LCOs just remain puppets in hands of big fish corporate who have recently entered and be on their mercy or could be erased from the Industry itself which is a baby of LCOs. LCOs are the people who are in direct contact with the consumers and have served them for decades and all the consumers are very happy by the services provided to them. LCOs have always tried to modernise and upgraded their cable lines like upgrading them to FIBER OPTIC, upgraded their equipments and not considering their profits they have always taken care to give best and quality services to the consumers and people of India. LCOs’ always have maintained cheap but best quality services providing policies. They are the real people in direct, frequent and regular contact with the consumers which for sure has maintained the quality. LCOs or their workers immediately attend their consumer just on one call and even otherwise they keep on checking on their services frequently. They have very intimate relations with their consumers and since LCOs cater in small areas, the community in the concerned neighbourhood within that area is very familiar with concerned LCO and personal relations and intimacy are maintained at the best. It is kind of intimate relation rather than just professional relation. It is crystal clear that nobody else but LCOs only can know how to provide cheap and best quality services to the actual user, TRAI is nobody to teach the LCOs, who does not even have the actual data regarding the Cable Industry. As an example according to TRAI there are about 60,000 LCOs in India which in actual number is over 125,000. Likewise there are so many things of which TRAI does not have real or authentic data. In the name of so called and illusive modernisation and quality service providing to the innocent people of India who are not even aware of what is being cooking behind the name of new regulations. TRAI indirectly exploits the LCOs of India and making rules and regulations which indirectly favouring big Broadcasters and big fishes of those most are not even of Indian origine Companies. It is an act of taking away bite from Indian hungry people and feeding that to some big fat foreign company where most revenue will go away from the country and local Indian pioneer of the Cable Industry will be left hungry and on mercy of foreign company. How can this be considered justified under rule of your Government that worships JUSTIFICATION. We all LCOs of India humbly request your kind self to restructure the office of TRAI or just dissolve the same since TRAI comes under the PMO. We all LCOs have come forward to you with the hope of justification and we request you to put a stay and freez the Regulations made by TRAI and restructure new regulation which is fair and reasonable to us and the people of India who are the actual beneficiary. Any regulation bought in should be for the betterment of India and people of India and the real people who have put their sweat and blood in planting new industry and served for the advantage of people of India and not to give away the revenue to the foreign companies. We have a hope that you will take immediate actions over this matter and do the justification. On the amendment to the new regulation, Mr Prakash Jawdekar, I&B Minister had to extend the implementation of DAS till end of year 2016, the reason behind that he did not get and good response to it and he must have experienced that all the LCOs of India have put cases in Courts, High Courts and Supreme Court of India challenging fundamental rights. Viewing the incompletion in Phase 1 and Phase 2, I&B Ministry had taken a step to stop the Phase 3 and Phase 4 from implementing until end of December 2016, we all LCOs of India welcome it. This action is not digesting to TRAI authorities and in recent interview of the Chief of TRAI on TV says it all, where he puts an argument that certain steps cannot lead to DIGITAL INDIA and that is why immediately Digitalisation should be implemented, this statement is far away from the facts. Digitalisation means providing Broadband in each and every corner of India, each citizen should be holding computer mouse in their hand. Broadband has both incoming and outgoing system while if we talk of cable industry in India STB is applied which has only incoming feature and no outgoing. STB can only show picture and not send or forward it, there is no mouse usage in this system. Is this how TRAI define DIGITALISATION? Introducing DAS TRAI is trying to put kind of Monopoly where only few big fishes rules the Industry and each consumer is left to the mercy of such monopolies. This act of creating monopoly can prove deadly for this industry and rather making cross media holding lobby which can indirectly bring instability in Indian politics which after some decades India became fortunate to have a stable ruling Government. The SET TOP BOXES is not some high technology that it cannot be manufactured and produced in our own country India but still it has been imported from foreign countries and due to the urgency of implementing the DAS even the Set Top Box exporting countries could not fulfil the demand of requirement of India and as a result the quality standards of these Set Top Boxes which are imported is of low standards and expensive too. If this matter is taken in a right manner the whole issue of quality control and supply of the Set Top Boxes can be channelized in a best way and also the service after sale of Set Top Box could be made perfect and easier which at present is LCOs of India are put into big trouble due to lack of service centres and sub standard quality of product. We have consulted India’s leading Lawyers like Supreme Court councillor Shree Ranjeet Kumar who presented our case in The Supreme Court of India which for some reason was drawn to High Court of Gujarat. I would like to mention here that your honourable Government has appointed Shree Ranjeet Kumar as Solicitor General of India. All the Advocates and lawyers we have consulted very much agree that the actions taken by TRAI is unreasonable and unfair and have a common view that there is no such monopoly been seen anywhere in the world. We have tried to put a transparent picture of prevailing situation in Cable Industry and we all over 125,000 LCOs of India humbly request and demand to do the needful and make the decision with fair justification at the earliest and put a full stop to this dictatorship act of TRAI. We have shared and supported in the development of India and we are committed to do the same and even better for times to come. We remain yours faithfully For Cable Operators’ Association of Gujarat Pramod Pandya (President)
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:51:55 +0000
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