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Thousands attended Sayeed’s burial, PDP wants Mehbooba as CM
Srinagar:Thousands on Thursday evening attended the burial of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who died earlier in New Delhi, with the PDP urging the governor to let his daughter Mehbooba Mufti take charge of the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
A huge mass of mourners, inclusive of VIPs, family members and party activists, assembled at the first ‘Nimaz-e-Jinaza’ (funeral prayer) for Sayeed here and a second in his hometown Bijbehara where he was laid to rest, marking the end of a long chapter in Kashmiri politics.
Senior PDP leaders Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Altaf Bukhari, meanwhile, submitted a letter to Governor N.N. Vohra nominating Mehbooba Mufti as the leader of their legislature party — which would entitle her to assume charge as the new chief minister of the BJP-PDP coalition government.
PDP sources told IANS that the letter urged the governor to administer the oath of office to Mehbooba Mufti after Sayeed’s last rites. If and when that happens, she will have to prove her majority on the floor of the 87-member assembly.
But the governor returned to Jammu on Thursday evening, indicating that the oath-taking ceremony of Mehbooba Mufti as chief minister was likely to be delayed.
The swearing in can take place on Friday, said a senior PDP leader, adding that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its alliance partner in the state government, backed Mehbooba Mufti’s elevation as chief minister.
Mehbooba Mufti, an MP, will have to get elected to the state assembly or be nominated to the legislative council (upper house) within six months if she becomes the chief minister. She will be the first woman chief minister of the country’s only Muslim-majority state.
Sayeed, who led the first coalition government in the state also involving the BJP, died in New Delhi on Thursday, 14 days after he was hospitalized.
Sayeed passed away at 9.10 a.m. at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, three days after he was put on ventilator. A severely diabetic, he “died due to bone marrow dysfunction”, a spokesman told IANS. He was admitted on December 24 with fever as well as chest infection.
Amid national mourning, his body was flown to Srinagar.
Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sayeed – who survived several attacks on him by militants – was chief minister the first time in 2002-05 in a coalition government with the Congress. In March last year, he allied with the BJP to become the chief minister again.
President Pranab Mukherjee lauded his contribution to Jammu and Kashmir and India through long years of public service.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sayeed’s “exemplary leadership had a major impact on people’s lives”. Crediting him with “statesmanship”, he said: “Mufti Sahab provided a healing touch to Jammu and Kashmir.”
Sayeed was the third chief minister of the state to die in office — after G.M. Sadiq (1971) and Sheikh Abdullah (1982).
Born in Bijbehara on January 12, 1936 to a family of ‘Peers’, Sayeed studied in Srinagar and at the Aligarh Muslim University before he joined politics in 1959.
After taking on the iconic Sheikh Abdullah, Sayeed became a cabinet minister in Jammu and Kashmir in 1972. Just three years later, he became head of the state unit of the Congress party.
He joined Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1986 but quit the next year to throw his lot with V.P. Singh, who revolted against Gandhi’s leadership and went on to become the prime minister in 1989.
Sayeed became the home minister in the V.P. Singh government.
Within days, militants abducted his third daughter, Rubaiya Sayeed, in Srinagar, forcing the V.P. Singh government to free five jailed guerrillas from Jammu and Kashmir.
In 1999, after a brief stint again in the Congress when P.V. Narasimha Rao became its leader, Sayeed and his daughter floated the PDP.
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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