New Delhi: Worried about Conditional Access System (CAS) becoming a reason for hostility with the states after the fiasco in the metros, the Centre has decided to make it mandatory to obtain concurrence of state governments before implementing it in other cities and towns.

"CAS is a consumer-friendly move. It should not become the object of Centre-state hostility," Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters on September 9.

With CAS buckling under political pressures in three metros, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is now considering an amendment in the cable law to make it mandatory to take state government's concurrence before going ahead with it in other states, sources said.

They said the process of consultations with states was already on in the Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, which have been notified for the zone-wise implementation of CAS from September 1.

The Centre is in no mood to take on the states over CAS and hopes to resolve any differences over it at a secretary level meeting convened by Secretary, Information and Broadcasting, on September 15.

Though government does not plan to roll-back CAS, it cannot at present rule out the option of coming out with fresh dates for Mumbai and Kolkata, where the Central law has virtually been defied following its deferment in Delhi.

PTI