To cap it, the operators have formed a cabal. There are three big operators who have given their business to many small-timers on franchise and the authorities appear to be soft-pedalling the issue.

The general view is that the private operators show uncensored ad strips and news on TV network. The development militates against a directive of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The overwhelming view is that the cable operators use power of press through backdoors.

The other sore point is the misuse of governmental assets like electric and telephone poles to lay wires to the houses for cable connections. This misuse mars the overall look of the residential colonies. When a consumer gets his cable disconnected, the operators snap up the wires leaving them dangling outside the houses.

One would not know whether they are live wires of the electricity department or telephone. Generally the wires of the operators are so laid up with the electricity wires that there is always a danger of an accident arising out of possibility of wires getting electrically charged up with current.

The cable mafia has wields considerable clout, not only in Gurgaon, but in other parts of NCR towns.

According to sources, a notice was issued to the cable operators in Gurgaon sometime in 2000-2001 by the electricity department directing them to remove their wires from its electricity poles. But the operators did not give two hoots to the notice.

Reports have it that the operators keep the politicians of the ruling party and a section of those in the administration and the police in good humour.

One way is apparently to keep the influential persons in the political spectrum happy by giving them goody-goody publicity through the channels of TV network.

The mafia also tries to play a key role in during elections. The operators adopt bulldozing approach against the average consumers, whether in terms of laying down rentals or the quality of services.