Congress member of the Parliament P. T. Thomas demanded here on Saturday that Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan should drop Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac from the Cabinet for allegedly aiding the lottery mafia.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Thomas said that the Finance Minister had facilitated additional profit of Rs. 120 crore to the lottery distributors during the Onam festival. He should clarify why police had not registered a case when a vehicle with lotteries was seized at Walayar check post.
He asked whether the Chief Minister, who had campaigned against fake lotteries when he was the Opposition Leader, ask the Director General of Police to register a case. “If he cannot dismiss Dr. Issac, would he be taking up the issue at least in the party fora?”
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Mr. Thomas claimed that party channel Kairali was telecasting recorded draws of lotteries as live shows. A complaint had been sent to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting against the channel.
He said that the Supreme Court in its interim order on November 4, 2009, had allowed registering of cases against those running fake lotteries. The Sikkim government had said that it was not aware of collection of Rs. 18000 crore annually from Kerala in the name of Sikkim and Bhutan lotteries, and it was for the Kerala government to take action in the matter. The Centre too had clarified in a reply tabled in the Parliament that the State government could register cases. However, no action had been taken.
He added that the government had not taken any steps to prove that the distributors were running the lotteries in contravention of the law, and seek ban of the lotteries by the Centre.
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