THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Tuesday struck down the state government’s decision to revive the weekly lotteries it had discontinued three months back. The Finance Department has stopped printing the tickets following a one-line note from the Chief Minister cancelling the decision.
While reasons were not given for the Chief Minister’s abrupt about-turn, he himself had approved the proposal last week after which the Finance Department issued formal orders - it is understood that the revival of the lotteries would have weakened the state’s case in the Supreme Court. Last week, Kerala had filed a special leave petition in the apex court saying that only one draw per week should be allowed.
It was only last week that Achuthanandan had given his approval for a Lotteries Department proposal to revive the discontinued lotteries. From December 6, there were to be seven draws a week for the Kerala State Lottery.
Following this, the Finance Department had instructed the Lotteries Department to start printing the tickets.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister was, however, non-committal on the proposal to revive the lotteries. According to him, indeed there was a proposal, but nothing had materialised out of it.
The State Lottery Department had confined its operations to just the Win Win lottery draws on Wednesdays after an August 30 High Court order terming multiple draws a week illegal. But the Single Bench verdict was overthrown by the Division Bench which ruled that any number of draws could be conducted in a week.
This prompted the government to think about reviving the discontinued lotteries.