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Aparna, Prateek meet Yogi Adityanath at VVIP guest house
Lucknow: Aparna Yadav younger daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today meet newly elected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today along with her husband Prateek Yadav.
The meeting was held at the government’s VVIP guest house and lasted for around thirty minutes.
The couple visit has been portrayed as a “courtesy call”. The meeting commenced around 9 AM when the couple arrived along with a bouquet of peach roses for the Chief Minister.
Interestingly, Adityanath has been residing at the VVIP guest house since his induction into the Chief Ministerial post.
The young Yadav’s are not the first members of Uttar Pradesh’s dynasty-based political family to meet the Safron-clad Chief Minister.
Taking political circles by surprise, Mulayam Singh Yadav attended the Yogi’s oath taking ceremony in accompaniment with his son and former Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav.
The meeting during the oath taking ceremony had been cordial and patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav was seen exchanging some words with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was also attending the ceremony.
This was despite the fact that the campaigning phase of the elections witnessed Akhilesh Yadav and the Prime Minister hurling bitter accusations at one another.
While, Mulayam Singh’s elder daughter-in-law, Dimple Yadav managed to win unopposed from the Kannauj constituency, wherefrom she was contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, his younger daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav had to face defeat in the Lucknow Cantt seat where she contested against BJP candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi.
This is not the first time that Mulayam Singh’s “chotti bahu” has been found liaising with BJP leaders. Earlier, a selfie of hers along with Prateek Yadav and Prime Minister Narendra Modi managed to create quite a controversy within Uttar Pradesh’s erstwhile ruling party. She had then responded by saying, “What’s wrong with that? He is everyone’s PM.”
The party has had to contend with stinging defeat after securing a mere 47 seats out of 403 in the recent state Assembly polls.
The BJP, on the other hand, secured a landslide victory for itself by winning 321 seats. The defeat, combined with the infighting, renders the Samajwadi party in a political state of uncertainty.
The young Yadav’s are not the first members of Uttar Pradesh’s dynasty-based political family to meet the Safron-clad Chief Minister.
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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