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States reject plan to transfer cinema to Concurrent List; Centre reveals uplinking logic

Most states and Union Territories are opposed to bringing cinema on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, though they are prepared to consider revision in the entertainment tax.

Speaking at the 23rd meeting of information and cinematography ministers of states and Union Territories in New Delhi today, the ministers, and the secretaries who attended the preparatory meet yesterday, made it clear that cinema should remain within the ambit of states.

With the exception of a few states like Mizoram and Nagaland, the officials attending the preparatory meet yesterday said this was a major constitutional issue and affected the revenue of states and therefore needed greater discussion.

Union I&B minister Sushma Swaraj said the grant of uplinking facilities to Indian satellite television channels would also help the government in ''monitoring their editorial content''.

In her opening remarks at the meet, Swaraj said free flow of information should not be at the cost of harming Indian culture and traditions.

She also said that grant of uplinking to Indian channels (with a maximum foreign equity of 20 per cent) will help save valuable foreign exchange drawn from the Reserve Bank of India to pay earth stations in foreign countries.

She said it was necessary for states and Union Territories to set up regulatory mechanisms under the Cable Operators (Regulation) Act 1995 so that there can be proper checks on the contents of television programmes particularly in reference to depiction of sex, violence and obscenity or software which militated against Indian culture.

Minister of state Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, Himachal Pradesh CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, I&B secretary P G Mankad, information officers or their representatives from different states and UTs and Central and state government officials were present at the morning session of the day-long conference, which was preceded by a meet of secretaries yesterday.

Swaraj said the 14-member Broadcasting Council brought back into the statute book by the Prasar Bharati (Amendment) Ordinance would also provide the public a forum to air their grievances about the content of radio and television programmes.

Decisions would be taken by collective wisdom and though the body was recommendatory, Prasar Bharati would have to broadcast/telecast the reasons why a recommendation was being accepted or rejected.

She admitted that several parts of the country were still not covered by Doordarshan. However, she said this problem had arisen because the ongoing projects for setting up transmitters and studios at different places were held up for one reason or another. Prasar Bharati officials had assured her that all these projects would be completed by the end of this month.

She wanted Doordarshan to reach every nook and corner of the country so that people were not forced to see the foreign channels beaming to those areas. The minister, however, said that radio still remained the primary source of entertainment in most parts of the country, especially in hilly and remote areas.

Swaraj said the government proposed to introduce a comprehensive Broadcasting Bill in the winter session of Parliament which will have provisions for mandatory uplinking from India.

She regretted that very few responses had been received to her letter to state chief ministers seeking their views on bringing cinema to the Concurrent List and rationalising the tax structure for the film industry following the Centre's decision to recognise it as an industry. She noted that some states had recognised cinema as an industry much before the central government did.

She wanted the states to give their reactions on the issues of bringing cinema to the Concurrent List, uniform entertainment tax and recognition of cinema as an industry.

UNI