NAGAPATTINAM: Thousands of subscribers were stuck indoors with no entertainment or infotainment on Thursday as cable TV operators stopped transmission for hours after one of them was booked by police for violating lockdown norms.
According to sources, A Asaithambi entered into an altercation with police near Velipalayam in Nagapattinam on Thursday when the latter questioned him why he wsa on the road at that hour. Asaithambi, office bearer of Cable Operators Association, allegedly told them that he had been to the District Collector’s Camp Office to attend to a problem. The police, sources, said were not convinced and booked a case against him.
Asaithambi convinced other operators into stopping telecast for three-hours in and around Nagapattinam. “Hundreds of us working for cable transmission. The administration has not provided curfew passes for us. The police are stopping us at every corner and making our work difficult. So, we expressed our outrage through cable cut.” said Asaithambi Television screens across Nagapattinam, Nagore, KIlvelur, Sikkal, and Poravacheri went blank from 1 pm to 4 pm and harried consumers started dialling up operators fpr the reason.
“The government is relaying updates about coronavirus without a break. We felt lost without the updates for a few hours. They are important in this period. We do not know the issues of operators. But, we request the administration to sort out those issues with the operators.” Said 27-year-old homemaker named S Ramya from Nagore. The transmission eventually restored in the evening.
Police had a different take on the issue . “It was not the first time we find him moving without proper permissions. We penalised only for not wearing a helmet in the end. We eventually decided not to charge him for lockdown violation,” said an officer.