Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minster Oommen Chandy on Wednesday refuted the allegations that lottery tickets printing was being handed over to private agencies.
At the Cabinet briefing, Chandy said that in view of the delay in printing of lottery tickets by KBPS and C-APT the two government owned agencies, an expert committee was formed to explore the options of having these printed from state owned SIDCO. Currently the two units printed 3.90 crore tickets a week of which 3.15 crore is printed by KBPS.
The chief minister said that the KBPS had agreed to print another 40 lakh tickets and that would resolve the problem. Meanwhile, proceeds from the sale of lotteries had increased from Rs 557 core to Rs 5,696 core during the past five years. The government is aiming at a target of Rs 10,000 crore.
Chandy said lakhs of lottery agents and vendors depended on the sale of lotteries for livelihood. Moreover, a major portion of funds coming in through lottery is being spent on providing financial assistance to poor patients through Karunya benevolent fund. So far the government has given financial assistance worth Rs 1,200.
