Feature
Badals lack courage to meet Moga victim’s family: Congress
Chandigarh: As protests increased over the death of a Dalit girl after being pushed out of a moving bus owned by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s transport company, state Congress chief Pratap Singh Bajwa on Saturday said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members lacked the moral courage to even go and meet the victim’s family.
Appealing to all political parties and social organisations to ensure justice to the 13-year-old victim, Arshdeep Kaur, Bajwa demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Badal “for lacking courage to go personally to express condolence to the poor and hapless family who belong to the area that once used to be the Badal family’s home turf”.
“It is the constitutional duty of the chief minister to provide a sense of security to every citizen.
“You (chief minister) have failed to provide that and the horrendous, horrifying and ghastly killing of a young girl belonging to a poor dalit family in broad daylight is a shocking example of how law and order situation has crumbled and the ordinary people are too scared to speak against the goonda (rogue) elements who have political patronage,” Bajwa said in a statement here.
“Your son Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal is the deputy chief minister and your daughter-in-law Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal is a union minister. None of you have the guts to meet the family and assure justice. Your moral weakness flows from the fact that your family business and vested interests dominate your politics and governance and are in clash with each other,” Bajwa said.
The Congress president demanded registration of a case against the transport company’s managing director Sukhbir Badal and other directors on the pattern of the case over the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape, the Uber taxi service in another rape case and the Uphaar cinema hall fire case.
“There cannot be two sets of law. The permits of all bus companies owned by Sukhbir Badal must be cancelled and the buses stopped forthwith from plying in the state,” Bajwa said.
The Congress leader said union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal misled the country by feigning ignorance about the ownership of the bus that belonged to her family and demanded she should also resign.
“Her ‘Nanhi Chhaan’ project for the protection of the girl child is a gimmick to gain foothold for political purposes. In case she was really sincere to the cause, she would not have expressed ignorance about the bus ownership and proceeded to Baghapurana without any delay,” he said.
He said the Youth Congress would lay siege to the transport company office in Bathinda on Sunday (May 3), while the company buses would be stopped in Mohali on May 4 (Monday) in the first phase of the Congress party’s agitation.
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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