The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mamunur Rashid

A well-organised lottery syndicate was making a windfall gains from the lottery draws by violating the rules of the Information Ministry.

After the liberation of the country at least 60 lottery draws were held, but only seven people claimed their first and second prizes, no body else claimed the rest of the wining prizes. The welfare organisations National Heart Foundation, Krira Unnyan Tahabil, Red Crescent Society, MANOSH Madak Nitamay Society, Adunik etc organised most of the lottery draws.

The National Heart Foundation source said they arranged more than 20 lottery draws in the country and only seven persons claimed their prizes. But the organisation did not note down the names and addresses of the prizewinners.

Any welfare organisation can apply for approval to arrange lottery draws for raising funds for their originations. The approval was not transferable and the collected money from the sale of lottery tickets to be used for the welfare of the underprivileged, according to the Information Ministry.

According to sources the MANOSH sold one lottery approval letter in violation of the rule of the ministry to JK International for only 35 lakh.

The sources said that the corrupt syndicate earned at least Tk 2 crore per draw, but only Tk 30 to Tk 40 lakh goes to the organisation's coffer that has taken the approval to conduct the lottery draw.

Razzak Ali, a lottery ticket seller, told the New Nation that he had been selling lottery tickets from the last 10 years in the New Market area, but he had never heard of anybody wining the first prize.