Faced with unwavering opposition, the state government has decided to repeal the controversial Regulation of Gaming Act 2021, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma informed today.
The law, which the government brought in to allow for the creation of casinos and regulate other forms of gambling that were going on in a grey area, will be scrapped through an ordinance, which will then be regularised in the Assembly at its next sitting.
Yesterday, Taxation Minister James PK Sangma, who was ultimately responsible for introducing the legislation in the first place, said that he would push for the repeal of the act.
While the government had earlier caved in to the pressure and promised to give up the idea of casinos, church groups and others continued to push for the repeal of the entire act.
Today, the CM said that there will not be any mechanism to regulate other forms of gambling in the state with the act’s repeal. “We will definitely be back to square one now and we will have to see how we move forward in this line,” he added.
On the claim that the government bowed to the pressure because it feared negative consequences at the next state election, which are due by March 2023, Sangma maintained that this was not the case.
“We strongly feel that when the concerns of the citizens are there, then the government must listen. Whether elections are there or not, the point is that this government has always kept that (people’s voice) as a priority,” Sangma said.
