MUMBAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday accused the central government of deliberately not issuing Digital Addressable System (DAS) licence to Arasu Cable TV Corporation in order to benefit Maran family-owned cable TV network.

Talking at the 57th National Development Council meeting in New Delhi, Jayalalitha lashed out at the Manmohan Singh-led government for its in-different attitude to Tamil Nadu.

"Every single legitimate request of our State has been turned down or ignored and every initiative stymied," she said during her speech at the meeting.

She pointed out how the government is yet to grant a licence to Arasu five months after applying for the same.

"Even a simple request from a State PSU for a Digital Addressable System (DAS) License for Chennai City has not been granted on totally extraneous considerations," Jayalalitha added.
 
Despite repeated representations to the Prime Minister and the concerned Union Minister, the DAS licence is yet to be given to the Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation.

While asserting that Arasu Cable caters to the poor and the middle class by providing cable TV service at nominal costs, without naming anyone she said that the government was "facilitating" the business interests of Sun Group, which also owns Sumangali Cablevision, a multi-system operator competing with Arasu.

"The deliberate non-issuance of DAS licence to the state government-owned Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation is only to facilitate the business interests of a particular family which forms part of the ruling coalition at the Centre," she alleged.

"This vindictive and discriminative act of the Government of India is highly condemnable and is yet another example of subverting the interest of the common people and the ruling dispensation‘s perpetual pandering to allies to ensure the survival of the Central Government."