The Haryana Government has constituted the District Monitoring Committee under Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
An official spokesman on Sunday said that the District Magistrate (DM) would be the chairman of the District Monitoring Committee.
The spokesman said that the other members of the Committee included the Superintendent of Police, Principal of one of the Women’s College in the District to be selected by the DM, representative of a leading NGO working for children welfare to be nominated by the DM, representative of a leading NGO working for women welfare to be nominated by the DM, academicians, psychologists and sociologists, one each to be nominated by the DM, one member of Media Accredited Committee to be nominated by the DM, one member from Doordarshan to be nominated by DM and District Information and Public Relations Officer.
He said that the Committee would provide a forum where the public may lodge a complaint regarding content aired over cable television and take action on the same as per procedure prescribed. Besides, it would also review the action taken by Authorized Officers for enforcement of Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1955. The Committee would immediately bring to the notice of the State and Central Government if any programme is affecting public order or wide spread resentment in any community.
He said that the Committee would also monitor the availability of free to air channels and channels notified for mandatory carriage on the cable network.
While enumerating the details of the procedure to be followed for handling the cases, the spokesman said that a complaint cell headed by a nodal officer at district level would be established and wide publicity be given regarding the constitution of monitoring committee and procedure followed by it, including putting it on the website of the State. The Committee would ordinarily meet once in two months to look into the complaints brought to its notice by individuals or organisations or take suo moto notice of violation of provisions of Cable TV Networks Rules, 1994.
The spokesman added that violations of programme and advertisement code are dealt with by the Central Government depending on the seriousness of the violation, as per which an advisory is given to the channel, warning is issued, channel is required to scroll an apology for a specified number of days and broadcast is suspended for specified time period.