Cash-Strapped Andhra Pradesh May Try Its Luck At Lottery

[ChinthaKayaRavi]

HYDERABAD: After eyeing control of liquor stores, the cash-strapped Andhra Pradesh government is now planning to revive the banned state-run Bhagyalakshmi lottery to try its luck in ramping up state revenues. 

Faced with dwindling finances and the massive task of building a capital city ahead of it, the state government is forced to fall back on old methods for resource mobilization, which it had done away with in the past. "Andhra Pradesh is in a situation where it needs huge amount of money at a time when its revenue generation is at the lowest ebb. This calls for some innovation in mobilizing funds and hence the government is exploring all old and new methods of finding revenue sources," said Kambampati Rammohan Rao, AP representative in Delhi, who accompanied chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to the nation's capital. 

 

The state government had started its lottery in 1969. Then there were initially only two draws a year, which went up to 11 in 1970-71 and 24 in 1973-74. The number of lottery draws in the state grew to 304 in 1992-93. It increased to 2,306 in 2003-04, 2,698 in 2004-05 and 2,853 in 2005-06, leading to demands, especially from women, for a ban. 

[ChinthaKayaRavi]

ltt

[suryausa]

bhagyalakshmi bumper draw 

[ChinthaKayaRavi]

bhagyalakshmi bumper draw 

 

yeah adhe adhe