Amaravati: The Legislative Assembly has passed the AP Gaming (Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Municipal Laws (Second Amendment) Bill 2020 by voice vote.

The amendment to the State Gaming Bill was necessitated to bring online gambling into its ambit as the cases of online betting have been increasing with the wide use of the internet and youth and students falling prey to gambling.

The Bill proposes stringent action and increased penalty and imprisonment for online and offline gambling, Minister for Home M Sucharita said while explaining the salient features.

Intervening, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that strict action would be taken on any offenders irrespective of their social status. Recently a distant relative of our minister was involved in such an activity and he was not spared. Our government is transparent and will not spare anyone.

Though the previous government made tall claims on internet-based services, they failed to see how the youth and young people were lured and duped by the online platform. Driven to debts some of the young people have committed suicide.

The Bill was passed by voice vote and members welcomed it.

The House also passed the AP Municipal Laws (Second Amendment) Bill which proposes to amend the house tax structure by a nominal hike. However, there will be no burden on people living in 375 sft which is just Rs 50 per annum.

The Bill was also passed by voice vote while the Opposition took objection to the contents of the Bill which was clarified by the Minister.

The Assembly also passed three Bills to give impetus to aquaculture. The Andhra Pradesh Fisheries University Bill 2020, Andhra Pradesh Aquaculture Seed (Quality Control) (Amendment) Bill 2020, and the Andhra Pradesh Fish feed (Quality Control) Bill 2020 by voice vote. The Bills have a provision to set up a regulatory mechanism to check the quality of fish feed and fish seed as the aqua farmers have been experiencing losses due to spurious and low-quality fish feed and fish seed. The Fisheries University will be coming up in West Godavari district.

It was Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who was told by the aqua farmers during his padayatra about their plight and the losses they were incurring due to low-quality fish feed and seed which form the main investment component, the Minister said.

The three Bills were passed by voice vote.