“I on behalf of the party feel that it is not appropriate to implement this act immediately in our state,” said HSPDP chief KP Pangniang.
The Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP), an alliance partner in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, has asked Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to keep in abeyance the implementation of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 in the state.
HSPDP chief KP Pangniang said the matter was raised on Thursday during the MDA coalition meeting where he had aired the views of his party in this regard.
“As a party, we feel that unless and until we see the whole picture clause by clause of this act, it is better to keep the implementation of this act in abeyance,” Pangniang told PTI.
“I on behalf of the party feel that it is not appropriate to implement this act immediately in our state,” he said.
Admitting that he has not read all the clauses of the act, the HSPDP chief said, “....to my understanding, if this gaming act is implemented in our state, it will affect the so called sentiment of the people since the majority of the citizen of the state are Christians, so we cannot deny the fact that gambling is one of the factor that we feel is not appropriate to encourage in our state.”
After interacting with the Chief Minister, he said, “At the same time through the media report, we have seen that even casino will be put in place in our state but after the chief minister brief us the whole purpose of this Act. Yes there are some clauses that gambling like there is one of the age old practices in our state, for that particular purpose we feel that it is ok that the government has to regulate this type of gambling.”
The HSPDP said it is not appropriate to implement this act immediately in the state.