LAHORE, July 29: The City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has decided to join hands with Pemra and launch a grand operation against illegal channels and vulgar movies and dramas being broadcast by cable operators.

The decision was taken after a meeting of Pemra delegation with DCO Muhammad Ijaz here on Saturday in which the former sought CDGL cooperation for the operation.

The Perma team, led by Khurram Siddiqui, discussed raiding strategy with CDGL officers Tariq Zaman, Chaudhry Ishtiaq Ahmad and others.

It was decided to form a rapid raiding force comprising CDGL, police and Pemra officers which would come into action immediately after receiving a complaint.

It was noted that most of complaints were received from city peripheries where cable operators would broadcast porno movies late night.

Before coming into action in the first week of August, a joint advertisement campaign would also be launched for warning the cable operators against their illegal activities as well as informing the masses where to register their complaints in case of pornography on TV channels.

The DCO also wanted action against manufacturers of x-rated CDs and booking the traders involved in the ugly business.

The Pemra team said there were only 75 licence holding cable operators while there were 200 illegal channels being broadcast in the city.

Pemra record says that there are over 600 loop-holders (providing relay services etc., to licence holders) in the city and of them only 300 are registered.

New food testing lab: District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood on Saturday opened a new building for the CDGL food testing laboratory on Poonch Road.

The new laboratory has the capacity of daily chemical analysis of 100 samples of eatables like spices, lentils, water, milk, sweets, etc., he told newsmen after opening the lab. The old laboratory located at Town Hall had the capacity of analysing a maximum of 30 samples a day.

The new building had cost Rs2.8 million and equipment Rs1.2 million, he said, adding that more equipment worth Rs3 million would be purchased soon.

According to Mian Amer, legislation for new food bylaws had been drafted and it would be put before the Punjab Assembly for approval shortly.

The district nazim said each food inspector of the CDGL had been directed to collect at least 10 samples of various food items daily and send them to the laboratory where latest spectrophot meter and water analyser would be used for their chemical analysis.