Feature
Fires claim 18 lives in Bihar since Sunday
Patna:Eighteen people, including seven children and four women, died and about 2,500 houses were destroyed since Sunday in various incidents of fire in Bihar with heat wave playing its part, officials said.
Fire claimed five people in Saran, four in Lakhisarai, three in Darbhanga, two in Gopalganj districts and one each in Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, Bhojpur and Vaishali districts, said an official of the state disaster management department.
“In Lakhisarai’s Pokhrama village, four children of a family were burnt alive after fire broke out in a thatched house. The four children were sleeping in a room when fire broke out,” a district official said on Monday.
In Saran, three women were burnt alive in a fire; a child and an old man died in separate fire incidents in the same district.
According to reports reaching here, fire incidents wreaked havoc across the state on Sunday.
Over 1000 houses were gutted in Darbhanga, 800 in Saran, 400 in Vaishali, 160 in Gopalganj, 150 in East Champaran, 200 in West Champaran, 100 in Samastipur, and dozens in Madhubani, Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur districts.
“Hundreds of families have become homeless and been forced to take shelter under trees or temporary tent of polythene and old clothes,” officials said.
Last week 12 people, including five children and four women, were burnt alive as a fire swept a row of houses, including one hosting a marriage party, in Harinagar village in Aurangabad district.
The state government has announced a compensation of Rs.4 lakh to the kin of each victim.
Fire incidents are common during the hot summer months in rural Bihar, where people still live in thatched houses.
Officials said fire incidents have been on the rise due to heat wave with temperatures as high as 42 to 43.5 degrees Celsius over the last 10 days.
Some people in villages in Bagaha in West Champaran district have started a campaign against lighting firewood or kerosene stoves to cook food after 9 a.m. in order to minimise the chance of fires, a district official said.
According to latest data compiled by the state disaster management department, nearly 500 cases of fire were reported in Bihar as of Friday; these incidents affected 5,742 families, left 23 people dead and seven people injured.
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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