Keeping in view the threat likely to be posed by the Conditional Access System to the security of the country's commercial capital, the Maharashtra government has asked the Centre to defer its implementation in the metropolis.

"The new technology will enable sending a particular message to a particular individual. It is a major threat to the city's security," Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has said in a letter to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, official sources said in Mumbai on Thursday night.

In the backdrop of the recent bomb blasts in the metropolis and threats of terrorist strikes, CAS should not be implemented, Bhujbal, who also holds the home portfolio, said in his communication.

He also advocated the need to take all political parties in the state and consumers into confidence before implementation of CAS.

The state government will apprise this fact to the Bombay high court, which had on Wednesday refused to stay the introduction of CAS.

The new system, which was to be implemented from September one in south Mumbai, came a cropper following fierce opposition from the Shiv Sena, a key ally of the ruling National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.

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