Signal failure led to LS TV blackout, says probe report

Failure to receive signals from the nine automatic cameras in Lok Sabha resulted in the blackout of Lok Sabha TV during the crucial proceedings for passage of the Telangana bill, a probe has found.

The probe was ordered into the 90-minute blackout on Lok Sabha TV on Tuesday when the controversial bill was taken up.

As soon as the Telangana bill was taken up for consideration at around 3 pm on Tuesday, and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde started speaking the live telecast had stopped, perhaps for the first time.

CEO of Lok Sabha TV Rajiv Mishra told PTI on Wednesday that the problem occurred as the signals from the cameras were not received in the mixer room located in Room No 50 in Parliament House from where the channel gets live feed.

He said while the audio feed was coming, the video feed was not.

Lok Sabha TV, which broadcasts the live coverage of all the proceedings, displayed 'House Adjourned' during that period. However, this was not the case as the proceedings were going on inside the House.     

Some time later, the display changed to 'Live from Lok Sabha shortly'. But it never happened and the bill was passed and the House was adjourned after 90 minutes of proceedings.

Mishra, who had ordered a probe into the technical problem, said the glitch was rectified after an affected cable was changed at 1 am on Wednesday.

He said the audio feed of the proceedings during the snag period will be uploaded on Lok Sabha as well as LS TV websites on Thursday.

Mishra said after the snag he had called an emergency meeting of the technical personnel and sought a report by Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the blackout of Lok Sabha TV coverage and passed a resolution against it.

The blackout was planned and not a technical glitch as has been claimed by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday, the BJP parliamentary party said.

The parliamentary party meeting, chaired by L K Advani, demanded that the proceedings be shown live when the bill is taken up in Rajya Sabha.

"A resolution has been passed by the party, saying the blackout was planned and not a technical glitch. This is in a way a disregard for democracy and democratic traditions were destroyed so that the country should not see the debate on the issue," the party's Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Image: A video grab of the Lok Sabha proceedings on Tuesday