Centre Passes Buck on Banning Online gaming Sites to States
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday (Image credit Sansad TV)
Centre Shifts Responsibility for Banning Online Gaming Sites to States
By TRH News Desk
New Delhi, March 26: The Centre on Wednesday said that the onus to ban the online gaming sites lie with the state governments. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran accused the Centre of “shying away from taking the moral responsibility in curbing the gaming sites”.
“Tamil Nadu government has banned the gaming and gambling sites. I have a direct question to the Minister, ‘Are you shying away from taking the moral responsibility’,” asked Maran.
The DMK MP said that the Centre in place of banning the gambling gaming sites is taking GST from them. “Wy are you not banning such gambling online sites,” asked Maran.
Union Minister for IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the states have the power to make laws on gaming and gambling websites. “Under the Constitution, the subject of regulating the online sites lies with the states under Entry 34 in the List 2 of the Constitution,” said Vaishnaw.
The Minister said that a total of 1410 online gaming and gambling sites have been blocked on orders of courts. “Criminal action can also be taken against such gaming sites under Bharatiya Nyay Samhita section 112,” said Vaishnaw.
Congress MP Amar Singh asked the Minister to give details of steps being taken on the adverse impact of the gaming sites. “The children are getting addicted by the gaming sites. They are not studying. They don’t even eat because of the gaming addictions,” Singh told the Minister in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour.
“What action has been taken against the betting sites,” asked Singh. He also sought to know the number of the people who have been addicted by the gaming sites in the country.
“Is it possible to count the number of the people addicted to gaming sites,” asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. You have been a senior official yourself, Birla told the Congress MP.
“Action can also be taken under the IT rules of the intermediaries on complaints against the online gaming and betting sites,” Vaishnaw told the MP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour.
Congress MP Kirsan Namdev said the “people are dying by suicides after incurring losses on betting online. The stress of the people addicted to the online gaming and betting sites is acute,” said Namdev in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress MP also raised the concerns that the “children are being exposed to the online betting and gaming sites”.
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