The Hindu : Lottery traders, hawkers to go on hunger strike

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Lottery traders, hawkers to go on hunger strike

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Jan. 20. As the sale of lottery tickets came to a close with the expiry of the week-long court stay on the blanket ban on raffles in Tamil Nadu, hundreds of lottery traders and roadside hawkers decided to go on a hunger strike on January 22 urging the Government to lift the clampdown.

Several visually handicapped people, who had lost their livelihood with the ban, would also join the strike by the lottery dealers and present a memorandum to the Government, pleading for permission to carry on lottery trade.

In a sudden move on January 8, the Government imposed a blanket ban on sale of all lottery tickets including the State-run raffles.

However, the Madras High Court granted a week-long stay on the operation of the ban order to enable conduct of draws for which the tickets had already been sold.

With the ban bringing to an end the thriving lottery industry in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 45 per cent of the raffle market share in the country, a "shocked" All-India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries, announced a one-day fast to press the Government to reconsider the ban and "regulate the sales if necessary."

`No fake tickets'

The Federation president, Usman Fayaz, told the media here that the Government claim that fake tickets were in circulation was not true.

"There are no fake tickets. When only 60 to 80 per cent of the (genuine) tickets are sold, there is no scope for fake tickets."

Mr. Fayaz also said the ban could not be justified on the ground that lottery addiction had ruined the lives of several poor people. "A few addicts cannot be the cause of the total ban.

There is also a positive side to the lottery as several families benefited from the trade."

He also disagreed with a perception that intense rivalry between two major dealers led to the ban. The lottery traders maintained that they were ready for any "government regulation" in keeping with the Lotteries Act, 1998.

Over a dozen visually handicapped lottery sellers also turned up at the media conference to narrate their tale of woes.

"I have been selling lottery tickets for 10 years now and I don't know what I will do now. My three children and wife will starve if the lottery sale does not resume," sobbed S. Murugesan, a graduate. Over 50,000 disabled people sell lottery tickets on trains, at bus terminals, railway stations and roadsides across the State. In Chennai alone, at least a 100 visually handicapped people make regular trips on the suburban rail routes, to eke out a living.

"We make Rs. 50 or 100 every day. Will the State Government give us an alternative livelihood," asked a visually handicapped couple, A.Vadivel and Kannathal.

For the visually challenged, selling lottery tickets is an easier task rather than hawking other articles. The reasons: lottery agents trust them and offer any number of tickets.

Besides, with the "the public sympathy for us (visually handicapped) and the hope of winning lotteries," the marketability was assured.

Their future bleak, the disabled lottery hawkers hinge their hope on the comeback of the paper raffles.

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