Chief Minister V. S. Achuthandnan said here on Wednesday that the government would look into the issue of lottery distributors siphoning off money from the State though bogus lotteries.
Noting that the allegations raised by the Opposition in this regard might not be correct, the Chief Minister said that the government would examine whether the distributors could cheat people because of inadequacy of steps taken by the State government or deficiencies of the Central law on lotteries.
The Chief Minister told the media that the State and Central laws were inadequate in checking lottery distributors. As a State law could not address the issue, the Centre should bring legislation to tackle the
issue effectively.
Mr. Achuthanandan said that the Cabinet had decided to form a high level committee to examine alienation of tribals land in Attappady area of Palakkad district.
The Committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, would examine various reports including that of Palakkad Collector on big companies cornering tribal lands. Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar and the principal secretaries of Revenue, Forest, Taxes, Law, Local Self Government and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development would be members of the committee. The Committee had been asked to submit its report in one month. Meanwhile, proceedings initiated by the Collector and Revenue Divisional Officer would continue, an official spokesman said.
Keywords: Kerala, Chief Minister, Opposition, Lottery agents, Review
