Feature
Bihar exam mess: 100 arrested, Centre to seek report
Patna: Cheating in the Class 10 exams continued in Bihar on Saturday, with police having to fire in the air and carry out a baton charge to disperse people who were helping students to copy. While nearly 100 people were arrested, union minister Upendra Kushwaha said the Centre will seek a report from Bihar on the cheating.
No one was injured in police firing in Vaishali and Bhojpur districts, an official said.
The development came just days after a photograph showing people climbing a school wall to fling answer sheets to students taking tests inside went viral and grabbed national and international headlines.
Police on Saturday fired in the air at an examination centre in Vaishali’s Hajipur area to disperse a large number of people helping students to copy, a police officer said.
The police action came a day after the Patna High Court directed the Bihar Police chief to deploy adequate security forces to ensure a check on cheating at examination centres.
In Ara, Bhojpur’s district headquarters, police resorted to a baton charge to disperse people helping students to copy in the examination.
Nearly 100 people, mostly close relatives of students, were arrested in Saharsa district for helping students copy in the exam.
Over 1.4 million students are appearing in the Class 10 board examination.
In a bizarre case, dozens of people — said to be family members of the students — were seen climbing the walls of an exam centre and flinging answer sheets into various rooms where their wards were writing the exam in Vaishali district.
In Patna, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday said the central government has taken the reports of rampant cheating and mass copying seriously, and will seek a report from Bihar on the incidents of widespread cheating.
“The central government will demand a report from Bihar in connection with reports of widespread cheating in the Class 10 exam,” Kushwaha told the media.
“It appears to be a failure of the state government to check cheating,” he said.
He said the Patna High Court has rightly pointed out that it was “very shameful” for Bihar Education Minister P.K Shahi, who said it was not possible to hold free and fair exams.
“Shahi should resign in view of the court’s observation against him,” Kushwaha said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed “pain” over the wide publicity given to the pictures showing cheating in the state, and said it had sullied the image of Bihar.
“The reports of cheating in examination has given a bad name to Bihar,” he said.
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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