allahabad no balikavadhu parvarish or any other daily soaps for majority of tv viewers across the city as operators and dealers both exhausted their stock of set top boxes even as anger of the common man spilled on the streets the directive of the central government which came into effect from sunday midnight left subscribers fretting and fuming as there were no tv signals at the stroke of midnight worst part is that entertainment packed cricket festival ipl 6 would be kicking off from wednesday leaving cricket fans in the lurch stating that the crisis was rooted in the laidback attitude of a majority of subscribers who remained undecided till the last moment cable operators say it was becoming impossible to cope with a huge demand at such a short notice they said shortage of equipment coupled with paucity of staff aggravated the problem as it was not possible to install the device in every house in a single day moreover the demand has shot up ever since signals went off the air forcing viewers to go without tv for the last two days confusion also prevailed in the wake of some consumers going for purchase of set top box privately from the market and later pestering operators after failing to connect with the main network public representatives including corporators are besieged with complaints from residents of their respective wards seeking their intervention to resolve the crisis said vidya dwivedi a corporator she said majority of subscribers in her malviya nagar ward have been deprived of tv shows for the last two days as the operators failed to install the device on the other hand slamming the central government for robbing the common man of his sole source of entertainment another corporator satish kesarwani said the ruling party will suffer the consequences for taking this step angry protests were held in the city in different areas where people torched the effigy of the central government for taking the new measure the government on its part is leaving no stone unturned to make the viewers aware of the efficacy of installing a set top box airing advertisements in the form of message from celebrities operators are also working overtime to ensure installing the device on the premises of their consumers there is no transparency in the price of set top box even as a large number of consumers purchased it from shops this is despite the fact that most of the operators are installing stb on the premises of their subscribers after completing necessary formalities including filling up forms and issuing receipts officials of the entertainment tax department including assistant entertainment tax commissioner kali shankar dixit said four companies in the city have been authorised to install set top box at houses of subscribers at rates fixed by the government and no one will be allowed to charge anything in excess action would be taken against operators who overcharge consumers at present the devices being installed in the city are priced