Mysuru: The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) has set a deadline of seven days for Cable TV operators and Internet Service Providers to pay the stipulated fee for regularisation of unauthorised cables tied to electricity poles. The drive to remove unauthorised cables will begin after seven days.

CESC has threatened to pull out all the unauthorised TV and internet connection Optical Fibre Cables (OFC) tied to electricity poles if the service providers fail to regularise them by paying the stipulated fee before the deadline or if they do not follow the guidelines while drawing cables through an electric pole.

The service providers have to submit an application for the purpose by paying a fee  besides paying regularisation fee for each electricity pole they are using, said the Executive Engineer (Works and Maintenance), N.R. Mohalla Division, CESC, in a press release. Cables hanging precariously from poles are a safety hazard and can cause electricity mishaps and consequent damage if the guidelines are not followed.

Hence, cable television operators and Internet Service Providers have been asked to immediately contact the jurisdictional officials of CESC and provide them the necessary information regarding their cables tied to electricity poles.

After submitting the applications and paying the stipulated fee, they can obtain the necessary safety guidelines from CESC officials. CESC said it cannot be held responsible for disruption of cable television or internet service if they remove the unauthorised cables after expiry of the deadline. Cutting of OFC would lead to outages and cause inconvenience to the users.

Cables that dangle from electric poles are dangerous, especially during heavy rains as they turn death traps. “We have been asking the OFC operators to stop the illegal stringing the cables over electricity poles and have been regularly conducting meetings with them on this. But although they agree with us during these meetings, they go back to their old ways later,” regretted a CESC official.

The press release states that keeping in mind the aesthetics of the city, laying of underground electricity cables was already under progress in a few areas and once the work is complete, the electricity poles will be removed from that area.

There are a couple of cables carrying internet and TV signals to homes along the electric poles and it becomes a humungous task for the linemen when the electric poles are uprooted due to rain or damaged by speedy winds.