Feature
Tripura holds tribal council polls
Agartala: With more tribal autonomy being viewed as a key issue, Tripura is witnessing its first EVM election on Sunday for its 30-member Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).
Polling for the TTAADC, a constitutional body viewed almost equivalent to state assembly, were being held peacefully in the morning.
“Weather is very pleasant all over. Voting has been peaceful so far. There are long queues of men and women at almost all the polling stations,” Superintendent of Police (Police Control) Uttam Kumar Bhowmik told.
Voting is being held at 1,070 polling stations in TTAADC areas, whose jurisdiction covers two-third of Tripura’s 10,491.69 square km territory.
There were no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere in the state in the morning, he added.
Of the 175 candidates contesting the elections for the TTAADC, 10 are women, said state Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, adding that a total of 758,554 electors, including 375,117 women, are eligible to vote.
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used in the TTAADC polls for the first time. Over 6,055 governement employees and around 200 senior officials have been engaged to conduct the polls, the official added.
He said besides four national political parties — Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — several local parties, including Trinamool Congress, have fielded their candidates for the autonomous constitutional body elections.
Two tribal-based parties — Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) — also nominated their candidates for all the 28 seats.
Unlike the Congress and BJP, the CPI-M holds a substantial base both among the tribals and non-tribals helping the Left party to govern the northeastern state since 1978 except for five years –1988-1993 — when the Congress-led alliance government ruled the state.
Since its formation in 1982, the Left Front has ruled the TTAADC except in two terms — 1990-1995 and 2000-2005.
During 1990 to 1995, the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity, a tribal based party, governed the TTAADC and in 2000-2005 the IPFT ruled the council.
All the parties are vying for more power in the TTAADC, which currently administers 18 departments, including school education, primary health, forest, industry, tribal welfare, PWD, sports and youth affairs.
Counting of ballots is scheduled for May 6.
Set up in 1982 to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of tribals, the 30-member TTAADC has 28 seats filled through direct election while two members are nominated by the government.
Twenty-seven seats in the council are reserved for tribals, who make up one-third of Tripura’s 3.7 million population.
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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