Feature
Badal meets slain police officer’s family, assures all help
Kapurthala (Punjab): Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday met the family of police officer Baljit Singh who died fighting terrorists and assured of all possible help to them.
He also met the families of three home guard personnel and three civilians who died in the terrorist attack in Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district on Monday morning.
“The country is proud of the martyred policemen who sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others,” Badal told reporters, referring to the officer and three home guards who too were killed by the terrorists.
Superintendent Baljit Singh, 48, was the most senior officer to die in the terror attack.
Badal said the SP’s family should feel proud and honoured as he attained martyrdom rather than dying an ordinary death.
“It’s a huge loss, I understand. But instead of grieving his demise, you should feel proud of his martyrdom as he saved thousands of innocent lives in the country by laying down his life for a greater cause,” an official statement quoting Badal said.
The chief minister was in Kapurthala, 180 km from state capital Chandigarh, to meet the family of Baljit Singh, which demanded government jobs for his three children on compassionate grounds.
He assured the family that the state government was duty bound to help them in this hour of crisis and every step would be taken to extend a helping hand to the family.
“I will fulfil my responsibility as the chief minister,” Badal said when asked about the jobs to the next of kin of the slain police officer.
He said the family didn’t raise any issue with him regarding jobs.
Appreciating the Punjab Police for tackling the terror attack efficaciously, Badal said the police showed that it was fully capable to deal with such a situation at any time.
“The army and paramilitary forces are meant for some bigger operations. In case the situation warranted their involvement, the state government would not have hesitated to hand over the command of counter-terror operation to the army, he said.
The chief minister said Punjab had since long remained a peaceful state as no such untoward incident had taken place in the recent past.
However, Badal said, this operation had given an opportunity to reassess the situation and overcome our weaknesses and follies, if any.
“We will certainly take stock of the situation and examine the finer details of the operation so as to undertake modernisation of police force, if needed.”
The chief minister, who was criticised by Amritsar’s Congress parliamentarian and former chief minister Amarinder Singh over lack of communication between the Centre and the state governments that led to intelligence failure, said there was no question of compromising with the security of the state.
Badal said the state government had already pruned the VIP security cover drastically to ensure that more and more forces were deployed in the field.
Earlier, the family of Baljit Singh refused to cremate his body, demanding appointment of his son as superintendent of police and his two daughters as naib tehsildars (revenue officials).
Baljit Singh, who headed the detective branch of police in Gurdaspur, was cremated with state honours here.
The government has announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh each to the families of the officer and the three deceased home guards and Rs.5 lakh each to the families of the civilians who died.
Later, Badal visited the families of home guards Des Raj, Bodh Raj and Sukhdev Singh, who attained martyrdom along with Baljit Singh, and also the families of deceased civilians Amarjit Singh, Nirmala Devi and Ghulam Rasul in different parts of Gurdaspur district.
Union minister of state Vijay Sampla also visited the family of Baljit Singh.
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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