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Goa India

State online lottery does not toe the line: Centre

BY SURAJ NANDREKAR

PANJIM, JUNE 27 
Within a month of its beginning, the State online lottery has come under the cloud of controversy with the Centre stating that the State lottery is defying the directives and legislations of the government of India regarding the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998 Lotteries Regulation Rules 20 and Lotteries Regulation Rules 2010.
A letter dispatched to the State chief secretary by the joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India, Dr Nirmaljit Singh Kalsi has demanded an explanation from the State on the running of the lottery.
“It has been found that some of the lottery schemes run by the State do not conform to the Lotteries (Regulation) Rules 2010 particularly rule 3(6) and 3(14),” the letter, a copy of which is in possession of Herald, says.
The lottery rules prohibit double, triple digit lotteries, which has also been banned by the Central Government in with effect from April 1, 2010 due to the vulnerability of poor, gullible  people of India.
In furtherance to the said Act of 1998, the government of India, made and published The Lotteries (Regulation) Rules 2010 effective from April 1, 2010 whereby the State governments are prohibited to offer a prize on a lottery or in an online lottery, on the basis of single, double or triple digits in any form, as laid down in Rule 3(14).
The Act also clearly mentions that no prize can be offered on any pre-announced number. 
“The online lottery is clearly a violation of Rule 3(6) as number of draws far exceed the limit. Moreover the players choose one of the options out of many and pay separately for the same,” the letter says.
Further, the letter says, “The results of online lottery also show that these are in fact double digit lotteries in the garb of four digits.” 
“In view of the above you may send a detailed explanation on the operations of the online lottery scheme by June 30,” the letter to the chief secretary says. 
However, despite the letter by the Home Department to government indicating violation of the rules, the officials are tightlipped on the said issue without taking any action to stop these illegal lotteries.
When contacted Director of Lotteries P S Reddy told Herald, he has no knowledge of the letter and also denied any illegalities in the online lottery.
“I have no knowledge of the letter and also we do not operate any two or three digit numbers,” Reddy said adding “Our online lottery is four digits.”
However, the letter clearly states under the garb of four digits illegalities are being carried out.
Along with Goa, the letters have also been sent to State governments of Nagaland, Sikkim and Maharashtra, which are also running the online lotteries.
It is known that the poor labour class is more prone to play on those tickets, whose prizes are based on single, double or triple digits draws . It is well known that a public member would definitely like to invent new circumventing methods to flout or violate the rules and regulations but in this unique case, the State government is adopting dubious methods to defy Central legislation.

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Trivandrum International Airport is the first airport of Kerala, situated in Thiruvananthapuram. Located at a distance of approximately 3.7 kilometres from the city centre, the Trivandrum International Airport operates direct flights to various countries around the globe such as Kuwait, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Dammam, Abu Dhabi and numerous others. It is also connected to major Indian cities such as Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa and Bangalore by domestic flights.  The airport also operates flights to the neighbouring SAARC countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives as well as to the South East Asian countries.

Established in 1932 as part of the Kerala Flying Club under the initiative of Colonel Goda Varma Raja, the airport attained its present international status on 1 January 1991. This has made the Trivandrum International Airport the first of its kind in India, located outside the metropolitan cities.

There are two main terminals in the airport, Terminal 1 that caters solely to domestic flights and Terminal 2 that serves international flights. The Terminal 3 of the airport is currently under construction. The third terminal is being constructed with the objective of catering to the ever-increasing load of international passengers. The new terminal would handle the major international flights and will have the capacity to handle up to 1600 passengers. The terminal, being built by Airports Authority of India (AAI),  is expected to provide a major boost to the development of the city’s infrastructure, the IT sector as well as its tourism industry in the southern districts. The new terminal at Trivandrum International Airport would be a tubular three-storied building having a floor area of 20,000 sq meters.

It would be fully air-conditioned and would provide wi-fi connectivity to passengers. The terminal will be equipped with all kinds of modern facilities such as escalators, elevators and aerobridges. A Common Users Terminal Equipment (CUTE) would be installed so as to allow passengers to check in at any counter. X-ray machines will be connected to the side of the conveyor belts for faster and easier clearance of baggage. The Terminal 3 is expected to be open to the public by July 2010.