New Delhi: An action group representing 50 consumer outfits said on June 10 that Conditional Access System (CAS) should be implemented only after all key consumer issues are addressed and a regulatory mechanism is put in place.

Threatening to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) unless these conditions were met before CAS launch, vice chairman of Consumer Co-ordination Council Bejon Misra charged the government with trying to implement a system, which was not consumer friendly.

"CAS should be implemented only after all key consumer issues are addressed and a regulatory mechanism is in place. If these issues are not sorted out well before July 14, 2003, the member organisations will be left with no option but to consider direct action such as PIL," Misra said in a statement.

Misra met the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on June 9 to discuss this issue.

He said consumers would be the worst hit in the current form of CAS regulation; they would have to pay a lot more and at the same time receive much lesser number of channels, besides not being able to decide between pay and free-to-air channels.

Consumer Co-ordination Committee comprises representatives of the Consumer Forum, VOICE and Indian Federation of Consumer Organisations.

PTI