Feature
Arvind Kejriwal on 5-day political visit to Punjab
Chandigarh: Ahead of Punjab assembly polls are due in early 2017, Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister today kicked off his five-day visit to the state to enhance political prospects of the party.
Kejriwal, who arrived here on a regular flight from Delhi, drove immediately to Sangrur town in Punjab. He was received here by top AAP leaders of the Punjab unit and some party leaders from Delhi.
“I am starting my five-day trip of Punjab today. I will be visiting villages and meeting with common people,” Kejriwal told the media after landing here.
“We will meet families affected by the drugs problem. We will try to understand their problems. We will meet families of farmers who committed suicide and understand their problems too. The AAP philosophy is that we meet people, listen to their problems and find solutions,” he said.
“Other parties make their manifestoes in air-conditioned rooms. We go to villages and homes of people,” Kejriwal said while taking a dig at other political parties.
Kejriwal will travel to Punjab’s three regions – Malwa, Majha and Doaba, during the visit, starting from Sangrur and Bathinda districts in the agriculturally-fertile south-west Punjab.
Kejriwal will visit Ferozepur and Faridkot districts on February 26, Khadoor Sahib, Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts on February 27, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts on February 28 and finally go to Ludhiana, Fategarh Sahib and Patiala districts on February 29.
“He will interact with various sections of the society comprising families of distressed farmers who have been committing suicides, members of Dalit families and unemployed educated youth and know the concerns of the women folk about their safety and security,” an AAP spokesman said.
He will meet the business community, comprising traders and captains of industry, to know the problems faced by them in the state.
The Congress in Punjab had earlier said that it will oppose Kejriwal’s visit if the Aam Aadmi Party does not change its agenda for the state.
“Kejriwal should not play with fire by instigating the sentiments of the people of Punjab. This is a very dangerous style of politics being done by the AAP,” Congress leader and Ludhiana MP Ravnit Singh Bittu had said.
Kejriwal had addressed a major AAP rally last month at the Maghi religious fair in Punjab’s Bathinda district.
The AAP is posing a serious political challenge to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance and the Congress, which have dominated Punjab’s political space for decades, in the run up to next year’s assembly polls.
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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