Even as unity moves are on to bring some order to the chaotic trade in town, cable and satellite homes in North 24-Parganas found themselves at the receiving end of yet another flare-up between rival operators.

Over 30,000 cable homes in areas such as Ichhapur, Palta and parts of Shyamnagar had to give the India vs Zimbabwe tie and all the rest of the small-screen fare the miss after the control rooms of Ichhapur Netcom and Akashpradip were sealed off by local police.

Ichhapur Netcom, an RPG franchisee operating in the area for the past eight years, alleged that its rival, Akashpradip, had damaged its cable lines at “over 70 to 80 spots” on Monday night, disrupting both the cable and Internet services.

It lodged an FIR with Noapara police station on Tuesday morning, following which officers sealed off both the control rooms, in an effort to prevent “breach of peace”.

“This has been going on for some time now,” said Sougata Banerjee of Ichhapur Netcom. “They damaged our cable lines on December 31 and our subscribers missed some of their favourite shows.” Akashpradip wants Ichhapur Netcom to hand over a section of its subscribers, he further alleged.

Akashpradip officials, however, had a different take. “Even our cables have been cut in a few places,” said Sankar Roy, managing director of Akashpradip. “We are slowly breaking the monopoly of Ichhapur Netcom, which is sparking the trouble,” he added.

An officer at Noapara police station, however, termed it yet another episode in the ongoing territorial tussle between two control rooms. “Every few months, some such incident occurs and then we have to intervene,” he said.