MHA intervenes to weaken government efforts

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  “Now, it seems that the Centre wants the state and many of us who were affected by the illegal lottery trade to pardon the ‘innocent violators’. This is quite unacceptable. The state should fight against any attempt to scuttle the court cases and the CBI probe,” said Purushothama Bharathi, president of the Kerala Lottery Agents Association.Meanwhile, the State Government is learnt to have sent a reply to the directions.    It has informed the Centre that the state is complying with the Lottery Rules 2010 in its true spirit. Also it has once again raised its long-pending demand for making an amendment to the rules to sort out various issues. The demand gains significance since the Lotteries Rules 2010 issued 12 years after the Lotteries Act 1998 permits online lotteries which were not even mentioned in the original Act.In its reply, the state is also learnt to have demanded restoring its power to ban the sale of other-state lotteries within the state through the amendment.