Feature
Munde’s dream rail project cleared on death anniversary eve
Mumbai: On the eve of the union minister Gopinath Munde’s first death anniversary, the state government has given a green signal to his dream project – a railway line connecting his small home village in rural Maharashtra, officials said here on Wednesday.
Munde, 65, a fire-brand young leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rural Development Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet was killed in a road accident in New Delhi on June 3, 2014.
On Tuesday, the Maharashtra cabinet granted approval to the long pending Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath railway line which will be a boon to the development of the backward, parched areas of Marathwada region of central Maharashtra.
“The project is a tribute to the late Munde Saheb… The project which was dear to him will now become a reality… The central government has already given its consent. Today we have given the approval for our 50 percent share of funds for the project,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on the occasion.
The state and central governments will share 50 percent of the the Rs.2,826 crore total cost for constructing the 261 kms long railway line, one of the major such projects of the Indian railways in the mofussil regions.
The project had been hanging fire for long and was first approved in 2009 by the state government on a similar cost-sharing basis.
At that time, the total cost was estimated at Rs.1,010 crore, with the state-centre ratio coming to barely Rs.505 crore each, but it is now escalated to nearly three times due to various reasons.
Marking Munde’s first anniversary on Wednesday, his nephew and once political heir Dhananjay Munde, who is now with Nationalist Congress Party and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council, offered floral tributes to his uncle in Mumbai.
The Mumbai BJP led by Ashish Shelar has announced a three-day programme to plant 51,000 saplings in Mumbai as a tribute to Munde’s memory.
Similar commemorative events have been planned for the day in Mumbai, Beed and his native Parli Vaijnath village and other parts of the state.
Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde is a cabinet minister in Maharashtra, while his second daughter Pritam is a Lok Sabha member from Beed constituency.
Besides them, Gopinath Munde – the brother-in-law of the late BJP strongman Pramod Mahajan, who died nine years ago – is survived by his widow Pradnya and a third daughter Yashashri.
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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