Tamil Nadu

Karur in grip of lottery traders

KARUR: Illegal lottery sale is lucrative business in the district, thanks to a bustling industrial hub, easy money float, ambitious and gullible population, tacit political support and condescending police.

Though a gang of raffle operators in the town was recently busted by senior police officials from Tiruchi, the sale of banned lottery tickets of other States thrive on the sly.

The highly industrialised Karur town, with varied businesses such as textile export, bus body building units, finance companies and agriculture and allied activities, give employment to thousands of people from nearby rural areas on daily wage basis. The average earning per person per day could touch Rs.100.

All these factors turned the district into a hub of illegal lottery sale, draining the resources of hundreds of families and taking many more close to ruin.

The ban clamped on the sale and trade of lottery tickets of other States did not deter traders and sections of the public to indulge in the game surreptitiously.

Before the last Assembly elections, a so-called association of lottery workers and traders even held out the promise of support to a political party in return for removing the ban. However, their expectations were belied when the State government did not relent on their demand.

Still, overcoming all odds, the raffle trade flourished in the district with the covert blessings of a section of politicians and police officials. The main bus stand and shops surrounding the areas remained the den of lottery ticket dealers.

In Kulithalai too, some shops in the bus stand area served as sales outlets. To their credit, the police would secure a couple of lottery ticket traders frequently and get them arraigned in cases. But nothing much happened.

That things were not rosy for the district police became evident when Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range, Ashok Kumar Das personally led a search operation in Kulithalai some days ago and rounded up over two dozen traders and raided five shops selling lottery tickets.

However, the lottery traders continued to flourish in Karur town, while in Kulithalai the trade resumed in a small scale after a lull.

Further complaints about sale of banned lottery tickets of other States reached the Deputy Inspector General of Police, who lost no time and descended on Karur unannounced.

In an undercover operation a few days ago, Mr. Das personally secured some lottery traders and his small posse of policemen took into custody several others.

Around 30 traders were arrested and lottery tickets worth several lakh of rupees seized.

The drive also led to the arrest of a prominent lottery ticket trader.

The traders would lie low for a while and then try to resume operations after the heat subsides. If people had to be saved from the clutches of the lottery, the district police would have to pull up their socks and simply do their duty, according to police sources.

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