THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Lotteries Department will live telecast the draw procedures to ensure transparency in its functioning. The department which notched up a turnover of `6,300 crore in 2015-16 fiscal believes the initiative would help in affirming people’s trust.
“The plan is to live telecast the entire draw proceeding of each lottery that would take 30-45 minutes. We have called for applications from interested television channels,” said S Karthikeyan, director of State Lotteries. According to him, the move would immensely help to boost the business.
“The biggest asset of State Lotteries is people’s trust in the brand. Fairness is key to our operations and now the live telecast will help people to reaffirm their confidence,” he added.
The department is planning to start telecasting the draw procedures at the earliest. It has invited letters of interest from television channels that hold a licence issued by the Government of India. They should also be empanelled with the state government’s Information and Public Relations Department. The telecast is expected to prevent some unhealthy practices by the lottery agents.
There are complaints that some agents sell tickets after the mandatory deadline.