The government on Monday decided to go ahead with the rollout of conditional access system for pay channels in as "consumer-friendly a manner as possible" in all the four metros as planned from September 1.
This was announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad after a nearly two-hour long meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at which Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi BJP leaders Madan Lal Khurana and V K Malhotra were also present.
"It is going to be implemented in all the four metros in a staggered manner as planned", Prasad said.
This was the fourth meeting of the I&B minister with the prime minister on the CAS issue, which has been embroiled in controversy in the wake of diverse pulls and pressures from the broadcasters on one side and the cable operators and multi-system operators on the other.
Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu was also prominent among those present.
Delhi BJP leaders, including Khurana, had pleaded for deferring the rollout at least for the national capital till the assembly elections later this year were over as they feared it would be suicidal for the party.