Feature
Rajya Sabha passes amended land boundary bill
New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Monday approved amendments to the land boundary agreement bill to correct an error in the name of the act.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth Amendment) Bill, 2013 was passed by the Rajya Sabha earlier this week.
The error was in the numbering of the bill as “119th” amendment in the title, while it had become “100th” amendment when it was passed.
Numbering of constitutional bills are adhoc and change as not all bills introduced are passed.
In the upper house, the change was made in the title of the bill, but in the text of the bill changes were not made.
However, when it went to the Lok Sabha, a minor mistake in the numbering of the bill, which becomes the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015, was noticed and corrected, and the bill was then passed.
“The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha at its sitting held on May 6, 2015 and transmitted to Lok Sabha for concurrence. The Lok Sabha at its sitting held on May 7, 2015 passed the Bill with amendments to Clause 3 of the bill,” said an explanation in the footnotes of the list of business of the Rajya Sabha for Monday.
As External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tabled the amended bill, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the minor error has caused an embarrassment to the house.
“This was very important bill, but this has caused great embarrassment to entire house… I am not saying the minister is to be blamed for it, officers looking at the bill should go word by word and line by line so in future a bill like this should not be dealt the way it has been dealt,” Azad said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said he had pointed out the error on the day the bill was passed.
“I was reminding you from here which amendment it is… listen to us sometimes,” Yechury said.
Sushma Swaraj, however, said: “The 119th amendment was presented in 2013, we had amended title when we presented the bill in Rajya Sabha, but we were told rest would be consequential amendment so we did not move them… but Lok Sabha wanted it to be amended everywhere in the bill.”
The amended bill was later passed following division.
The bill amends the First Schedule of the Constitution to give effect to an agreement entered into by India and Bangladesh on the acquiring and transfer of territories between the two countries on May 16, 1974.
The First Schedule defines the area of each state and union territory which together constitute India.
The bill to operationalise the agreement with Bangladesh includes exchange of territories in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
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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