Feature
Naidu, Mamata, Kejriwal to address joint rally in Vizag
In yet another show of opposition unity, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu along with his West Bengal and Delhi counterparts, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal respectively, will address an election rally here on Sunday as part of their campaign against Prime Minister Narndra Modi for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The three-hour rally will commence at around 5.30 p.m. at the Indira Priyadarshini Municipal Stadium in this port town.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal will campaign for Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at the mega rally.
Banerjee arrived here in the afternoon while Kejriwal is to reach by the evening.
After the rally, the three Chief Ministers will remain in Visakhapatnam to discuss the national scenario and work out strategies in the coming days.
The move is part of simultaneous Assembly and Parliamentary polls which will take place in Andhra Pradesh in the first phase on April 11.
Five years ago in the same location, Naidu along with Modi and film actor Pawan Kalyan had addressed a joint rally seeking mandate for the TDP rule in the state and formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government at the Centre in the 2014 Lo Sabha elections.
Naidu had pulled his TDP out of the NDA in March 2018 alleging injustice being meted out to the state by the Modi government.
Since then, he has been in the forefront of the proposed Grand Alliance (mahagathbandhan), trying to get together all opposition parties, including the Congress.
Naidu, who orchestrated a big rally against the Modi government in Delhi, has lined up all his allies for his campaign in Andhra Pradesh against Modi at the Centre and YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh.
Though many other leaders from the proposed Grand Alliance including Janata Dal-Secular President H.D. Deve Gowda, DMK chief M.K. Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdulla were invited to the rally, but were unable to attend, a TDP leader familiar with the development said.
Kejriwal and Abdullah had already addressed a few meetings in the state.
Gowda is expected to join the campaign for the TDP next week and more leaders from non-BJP parties are expected to canvass in support of TDP candidates in next few days.
Visakhapatnam is a very important constituency like Hyderabad as it is a cosmopolitan city with a large number of people from West Bengal, Odisha and northeastern states settling there for education, employment and business activities.
“We are fighting against Modi government because it did not give special status to Andhra Pradesh despite its promises. There are other many issues on which the TDP was cheated,” Lanka Dinakar, TDP national spokesperson, told IANS.
He said that a joint campaign by Banerjee and Kejriwal would really help garner votes in favour of the TDP.
The Congress however, is staying away from the Visakhapatnam rally because the party is fighting the elections independently in all the 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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