Feature
BJP wins Jammu Municipal Corporation; Independents, Congress do better in Valley
As a hassle-free counting of votes in the Jammu and Kashmir civic elections ended on Saturday, the BJP emerged winner in the Jammu Municipal Corporation, while majority of seats in Srinagar Municipal Corporation went to Independent candidates.
Thanks to the presence of security forces in large numbers around the counting centres, the counting process ended peacefully in both Jammu province and the Valley.
Due to very poor turnout of voters in the Valley and the boycott by regional National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), an overwhelming majority of those who won these elections were new and unknown faces.
It was only during the result declaration announcements by the poll authorities that the people came to know who the contestants were.
Due to security reasons the poll authorities had not made the names of the contestants in the Valley public.
In Srinagar Municipal Corporation, the Independents won 49, Congress 12 and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) four wards.
After completion of the counting process, the BJP emerged as the largest party in the Jammu province and the Congress doing marginally better in the Kashmir valley.
In the Jammu region that includes the districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Udhampur, Poonch and Rajouri, the BJP candidates won 212 wards, the Congress 110, National Panthers Party 13 and the Independents 185.
In the Valley, with Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara, Badgam, Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam, Bandipora and Ganderbal as its districts, the Congress won 79 wards, the BJP 75, Independents 71, Peoples Conference two and others two.
In Leh, the Congress swept the polls winning all the 13 seats, while in Kargil, the Congress won six and Independents seven wards.
Independents supported by former Minister and Peoples Conference Chief Sajad Gani Lone won all the 13 seats in the Handwara Municipal Committee polls in Kupwara.
In Anantnag, Kokernag and Dooru municipal committees, the Congress candidates won most of the wards.
In Srinagar Municipal Corporation polls, among the prominent winners was Junaid Azim Mattu, who left the National Conference (NC) after he disagreed with the poll boycott decision by the NC.
Prominent among the losers was Asifa Tariq Karra, the wife of senior Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra.
The municipal elections, taking place in the state after 13 years, were held in four phases, covering 79 municipal bodies with an electorate of about 17 lakh electors.
A total of 3,372 nominations were filed for 1,145 wards and the voting was held on October 8, 10, 13 and 16.
The Valley witnessed very low voter turnout while Jammu and Ladakh recorded heavy polling.
Of the 598 wards in Kashmir, 231 candidates were elected unopposed, while there were no candidates in 181 wards.
The overall voting percentage for these polls in the state was 35.1 per cent.
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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