Feature
B’desh keen to sign treaties with India
Agartala: According to the Bangladesh officials their country is keen to sign treaties with India in relation to the sharing of waters of all rivers flowing between the two neighbours.
“Our (Bangladesh) government wants to sign separate treaties with India to share the waters of all rivers flowing between the two countries,” Bangladesh’s Comilla district deputy commissioner Mohammad Hasanuzzaman Kollol told reporters here.
He said: “Unless there is a treaty, Bangladesh would be deprived of getting due share of waters of the rivers flowing from Indian territories. We have decided to refer the issue to the Joint River Commission (JRC) to finalise the matter.”
Fifty-four rivers flow between India and Bangladesh, sustaining the lives of over 620 million people along their banks.
At the 37th meeting of the JRC in New Delhi in March 2010, Bangladesh allowed India to go ahead with a drinking water project and 21 river protection projects on the Feni river along southern Tripura.
“After construction of a hydel power project and several barrages in Tripura, we are getting less water from Gomti river,” Kollol added.
The sharing of water of Teesta river is a contentious issue between India and Bangladesh. After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee objected to the inking of the water sharing accord, fearing north Bengal would turn dry if the treaty was implemented, the issue has remained unresolved between the two countries for the past few years.
India and Bangladesh signed a water sharing treaty in 1996 to share the water of the Ganga.
District magistrates and other officials of Tripura’s four districts – Sipahijala, Gomti, South Tripura and Dhalai – met the deputy commissioners of Bangladesh’s five districts — Comilla, Feni, Rangamati, Khagrachari and Chittagong – and discussed border crimes, water sharing, setting up of more ‘border hats’ (market), border fencing, better coordination between the district administrations of both sides.
Senior officials of the Border Security Force, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh and Tripura Police and customs were also present in the day-long meeting.
“To curb the border crimes, more vigil along the borders by the border guards of the two countries is required,” said Kollol, accompanied by other officials.
The Tripura government has been asking the central government to build fences at the actual border (zero line) with Bangladesh to keep border markets, human habitats, roads and government set-ups inside the fencing.
The Bangladeshi officials have asked their Indian counterparts to erect the fence 150 yards from the zero line of the borders as per the international norms.
India is erecting a barbed wire fence and putting up floodlights along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram to check trans-border movement of militants, and curb the border crimes.
Four Indian northeastern states — Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Assam — share 1,880-km-long border with Bangladesh, with 856 km frontiers in Tripura alone.
The mountainous terrain, dense forests and other hindrances make the unfenced borders porous and vulnerable, letting illegal immigrants and intruders cross over without any hurdle.
The two neighbours have 2,979 km of land border and 1,116 km of riverine boundaries.
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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