Feature
Nitish Kumar goes knocking on doors as assembly polls loom
Patna: Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United on Thursday launched ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ (knock on every door) campaign on Thursday to reach out to millions of voters at their doorsteps ahead of the coming state assembly elections.
While Chief Minister Nitish Kumar – declared the chief ministerial candidate of the JD-U, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and NCP – launched the campaign in Patna, state JD-U leaders and workers kick-started it simultaneously from 10,000 locations across Bihar.
Nitish Kumar personally went about knocking on the doors of several houses in Paschim Darwaja locality in Patna Saheb assembly constituency to launch the ambitious campaign of the JD-U to reach out to one crore households and meet three crore people.
“Nitish Kumar personally knocked on the doors of several houses in old Patna city and asked people whether they were happy with his development work. He appealed to them to give him another chance,” said a JD-U leader who accompanied Nitish Kumar on the door-to-door walk.
Hundreds of JD-U leaders and workers accompanied Nitish Kumar during the campaign.
State JD-U president Vashisht Narain Singh launched the campaign at the party office.
“JD-U’s aim is to reach out to at least three to four crore voters through this campaign. Thousands of party workers and leaders, including ministers, members of parliament and legislators have been involved in knocking on people’s doors to personally reach out to them,” Vashisht Narain Singh said.
This door-to-door campaign is the brainchild of Prashant Kishore, an erstwhile key strategist of Narendra Modi during the last Lok Sabha polls.
Last month, Nitish Kumar launched a high-tech ‘Badh Chala Bihar’ (Bihar moving forward) initiative to directly reach out to the masses and seek their ideas and suggestions for the state’s development. That too was the brainchild of Prashant Kishore.
But the state Election Commission (EC) on Saturday suspended the ‘Badh Chala Bihar’ campaign after the Bharatiya Janata Party complained that it violated the Model Code of Conduct for the biennial elections to the state legislative council and misuse of government funds and resources.
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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