Mamata Banerjee threatens agitation on TV digitisation issue

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today threatened to launch an agitation if television transmission was blacked out after the October 31 deadline for digitisation and accused the Centre of trying to adopt a path of "confrontation" with the states on the issue.

"When set top boxes are not in hand, analog system should be allowed to continue and the Centre has no right to blackout television. We can't simply accept this stand of the Centre," Banerjee told a press conference here.

Regretting she had not received a reply to her communication to the Centre in June seeking extension of the deadline, the chief minister said, "If necessary, we will launch a statewide movement and later spread it to the whole of India."

The Trinamool Congress supremo said that the Centre appeared to be interested in confrontation with the states on the digitisation issue.