THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the criticism by the CAG, the state government has asked the Crime Branch to monitor the lottery sales in the state. The agency has also been asked to speed up the probe into the cases registered for illegal lottery sales. Meanwhile, the Lotteries Department is mulling a plan to add watermark on its tickets to enhance security. Lotteries Department director S Shanavas said the department was in talks with its security presses for adding the new feature. The quality of the paper has to be increased to facilitate the new feature.
The department had come under severe criticism from the CAG for ignoring the fake ticket sales that would affect the credibility of the state lotteries. Its recent report said that the District Lottery Offices received 3,48,699 fake ticket claims between 2011 and 17. The fake tickets submitted were the photocopy or scanned image of the prize-winning tickets.
As per the Lottery (Regulation) Rules, 2010, the organising state should effectively supervise the conduct of lotteries to avoid any malpractice. The report said the State Lotteries neither had an enforcement wing to curb this practice nor an SOP to prevent it. But Shanavas claimed that the department had already addressed the issue when it introduced more security features in the ticket last year. They include halo (hidden images), copy evident marks, microprint (text indiscernible to the naked eye) and guilloche (ornamental patterns).
“Complaints of fake tickets are almost nil after the new features were added. Still, to ensure a foolproof system, we would add watermark,” he said.According to the director, the urgent threat to the state lotteries was the illegal single-digit ticket sales. The department is coordinating with the Crime Branch to curb the menace, he said. “The CB had arrested 36 persons for the illegal sales. We have cancelled the agencies which conducted the illegal sales. Surveillance is on to check the practice,” he added.
Dept under fire
The department had come under severe criticism from the CAG for ignoring the fake ticket sales that would affect the credibility of the state lotteries