Clouds loom over quot;fortune industryquot;

The fortune business, managed by the 550-odd Government staff of the Kerala Lotteries Department, runs four weekly lotteries including Maveli, Periyar, Soubhagya, Kairali and the monthly bumper tickets.

In addition to the State-run lotteries, nearly 60 lotteries of other State Governments are also available in the market. It is, however, only in Kerala that a Government department has been constituted to run lotteries.

Elsewhere, the business is managed by organisers who share the profits with the State Governments.

According to Government sources, the number of recognised lottery agents in the State has crossed 20,000, with Ernakulam topping the list with over 3,000 in the roll. The wide marketing network, though not organised, employs a few more lakhs, in addition to the estimated 3 lakh non-registered agents, with most of them aged or disabled in some way or other. The officialfigures place the profit from the industry during the past two financial years at Rs 24.84 crore. The unclaimed prizes total another Rs 13 crore which is added to the kitty, sources said.

The 1997 Grand Onam bumper, which offered a first prize of Rs 75 lakh, set an all time sales record, bagging Rs 5.82 crore and a profit of Rs 1.9 crore.

The national figures put the total revenue from the business, which is only second to Indian Railways in terms of providing employment opportunities, around Rs 70,000 crore. This industry, say the figures, employees over 30 lakh people countrywide.

8220;The proposed ban is sure to put the life of lakhs in jeopardy, as the majority of the sellers are physically disabled, aged or ill, and do not know any other way to keep the wolf off the door,8221; said C V G Pai, who has been in the industry for the past 15 years and has an average daily sales proceeds of over Rs 1.5 lakh.

Murukan, a visually impaired youth who was a beggar earlier and is now earning a decent living byselling tickets, also echoed these sentiments. 8220;I will have to go back to begging if the lottery is banned, as I won8217;t get any other job,8221; he said.

8220;An agent who sells 50 tickets a day earns Rs 150 as commission. With the ban, lakhs will be driven to poverty and suicide. What right does the Government, which has failed to provide employment opportunity, have to ban lotteries which provide employment opportunities to poor,8221; fumed a vendor.

Airing their concern over the proposed ban, the Kerala Lottery Agents Association KLAA in a memorandum to the Union Government, has called for corrective measures to do away with the corruption that has crept into the industry instead of imposing a carpet ban.

The KLAA has also planned a series of agitations against the proposed ban. The lottery agents and sellers will post one lakh letters to the Prime Minister, urging him to withdraw the move. In the second stage, the sellers will picket Central Government offices, Association General Secretary K Jayanth Paisaid.

The Government8217;s move will deny lakhs, who are unable to find alternative jobs, of a steady income. This will trigger off frustration, suicides, crimes, alcoholism and other related socio-economic problems. The worst affected will be the disabled and aged vendors, KLAA president K M George said in a representation submitted to the Prime Minister and the President.