Karnataka govt to bring real money gaming under legal parameter: Kharge

Bengaluru: Karnataka Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology Priyank Kharge on Tuesday said that the government is mulling over bringing the entire online gaming, real money gaming, under a legal parameter.

"Illegal online gaming should be controlled. We have close to around 520 million gamers in India. We are the highest gaming community and we should safeguard people. Despite a 28 per cent GST by the central government, just last year 23 million gamers were added," Kharge told reporters in response to a question about whether the government was planning to bring any kind of restrictions on online gaming.

Noting that these gamers are playing in servers that are located in China, Eastern Europe, he said, "that is causing a lot of exchequer damage also and more people are getting conned or frauded. So, we need to figure a way out to make this entire online gaming, real money gaming in a legal parameter."

"Like how Chhattisgarh has brought a bill on online betting, maybe we are also mulling on seeing whether we can get that through the department of IT and Home," he added.

Asked whether the government was planning to bring in legislation against hate or communal speeches, Kharge, stating that he was not exactly sure of it, said hate speech, misinformation, discrimination of students based on caste in education institutions -- all these have been discussed thoroughly on the party forum.

"We will see what to do when it comes to getting it as a bill. It is being discussed threadbare and we are hopeful that sooner or later this will be a part of a bill to give a conducive environment, a constitutionally good environment for people," he added.

Regarding the BJP's protests accusing the Congress government of diverting funds reserved under the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for guarantee schemes, Kharge said, let them tell under which rule the funds are being diverted or misused.

"I have posed a few questions to them (BJP) -- as to why they did not protest when PM Narendra Modi weakened the SCSP-TSP act of the planning commission? Why are central SCSP-TSP acts being used for the production linked incentives? Why is it being used for semiconductors? Why is it being used for compensating telecom operators?" he asked.

How is it the Madhya Pradesh BJP government using the money meant for Dalits and adivasis for protection of cows?, he further asked, and said, "Rs 2,000 crore of SCSP-TSP fund was diverted for farm loan waiver in Maharashtra. In Gujarat (where BJP is in power) they have used Rs 5 crore money meant for adivasis and schedule caste to produce a documentary on Vadnagar, which is the native of PM Modi." The BJP should start protesting about all this, Kharge pointed out.

He further said, "On the floor of the House, the then Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (of BJP) had agreed that there was diversion of Rs 5,000 crore. Kota Srinivas Poojari, Govind Karjol and Sriramulu, who were all Social Welfare Ministers during BJP rule have agreed that there was diversion of SCP-TSP funds, combined of more than Rs 10,000 crore." He asked whether the BJP is protesting about that?