Feature
SC slams Rajasthan for displaying ‘helplessness’
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday chided the Rajasthan government for displaying “state of helplessness” in carrying out a high court direction to facilitate widening of the Delhi-Jaipur highway.
The widening of the highway is held up due to a ‘bavadi’ (stepwell) and ‘samadhi’ (memorial of Baba Balnath.
The Rajasthan High Court had ordered removal of the ‘bavadi’ which was dry and shrinking of the ‘samadhi’ area for the road widening work being done by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
“A major part of the national highway is complete…Now do you want it should be held up,” asked the apex court vacation bench of Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy.
It asked the Rajasthan government to approach the state high court if it thought it has case of revisiting the court’s May 19, 2015, directions.
“Is the state in a state of helplessness now,” observed Justice Amitava Roy, saying that “state should help NHAI to complete the project. Instead of facilitating the project, you are creating hindrances.”
The court said this as it dismissed plea by the Rajasthan government which questioned the two directions of the high court for removal of the ‘bavadi’ and shrinking the space around the ‘samadhi’ that were coming in the way of the widening the Delhi-Jaipur highway.
As senior counsel Pallav Shishodia tried to impress upon the court the significance of the ‘bavadi’ as a source of water for people living around it and the lakhs of people visiting the ‘samadhi’, the court said: “We think the better course will be to make further endeavour and efforts to persuade the high court. You can’t expect us to find faults with the high court reasoning.”
The Rajasthan High Court by its May 19, 2015, order rejected the state government plea to construct a road overbridge or an underpass to save the ‘bavadi’ and the ‘samadhi’.
It said: “The ‘bavadi’, which is said to be 25m X 10 in dimension and 20 ft deep, and for which there is no report in last several decades that it was ever filled with water, must be removed. No further dispute with regard to ‘bavadi’ will be entertained.”
The court further ordered that an extra-wide service road be constructed beyond the ‘samadhi’ by minimising the samadhi area.
The high court said there was no need to construct a road overbridge or an underpass.
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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