Lottery news from http://cities.expressindia.com/
Kolkata, July 5: The state government is determined to stop online lottery. Asim Dasgupta, state finance minister, said in the Assembly today that the lottery owners have managed to secure a stay order from the Supreme Court. The state government will resume its drive to abolish online lottery once the period for the stay order elapses.
During the debate on the budget proposals, Dasgupta said that though online lottery is a Union subject, the state plans to take a strong stand against it.
The state government had decided to ban online lotteries last year, following which the lottery owners had appealed against it in Calcutta High Court. The court ruled in favour of the state government. Thereafter, the owners moved the Supreme Court which issued a stay order for six months on the ban.
“After the six months are over we will again make a move to ban online lotteries in the state,” said Dasgupta.
The decision to stop online lottery had been taken following protests against it by the CPI(M)Õs youth wing, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). They claimed that the game was addictive and harmful for those who got involved in it. The DYFI workers had also ransacked some online lottery centres.
The Opposition accused the government of mismanaging the funds coming in from Central schemes. It cautioned the ruling party from running into a debt-trap.
Dasgupta, however, said, “We utilise 80 to 90 per cent of the money coming for the implementation of the Central schemes. The allocations made during the budget are also spent in time.”
“The OppositionÕs allegation that we are running into a debt-trap is completely baseless. The Union government is much more in debt than we are. The debt in our state is 48 per cent while that of the Union governemnt is 54 per cent,” said Dasgupta.
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