DTH operators complain to Centre about jammers disrupting service

Mumbai: Direct-to-Home (DTH) television operators have sought Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's intervention to sort out the issue of alleged disruption of their services by local cable operators using jammers. In a letter to Singh, they have also raised security concerns as the jammers could be used to disrupt signals of facilities being used by the government.[caption id="attachment_1631239" align="alignleft" width="380"] Facing jammer issues. Reuters[/caption]"We would like to bring to your kind attention our serious concern in relation to the illegal use of jammers. We demand your intervention in the issue to ensure that immediate action is initiated against this illegal activity and the persons involved in the same," DTH Operators Association of India president Harit Nagpal said in a letter to Singh last week.The letter, copies of which have also been marked to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the prime minister and national security adviser Ajit Doval, said jammers being used by "anti-social elements" to disrupt DTH signals were also a threat to national security as they could be used to interfere with signals in other bands, including those being used by the government."This is a clear violation of the Wireless and Telegraph Act 1933 under which possession and use of unauthorised equipment and interference with transmission of authorised signals is illegal. We have raised this issue in the past too when similar occurrences took place in Noida (UP) in 2011 and Mumbai in 2008 and then again in 2012," the letter said.The association said it wrote the letter following "numerous complaints" by the DTH subscribers about disruption of their services across the city with the help of jammers.PTI