Speaking to Express Newsline, Arvind Mirikar, Director of Small Savings and Lotteries, said that while high level meetings with the Finance Ministry had been completed, all that was to be worked out were the formalities. Ever since the instant, single-digit lotteries were banned, and the three weekly lotteries were stopped, the revenue gained through lotteries for the state had dropped from an earlier Rs 10 crore to a mere Rs 2.5 crore for 1997-98.

``Sales have dropped ever since the instant lotteries were withdrawn since the labour classes were its largest patrons,'' said Mirikar. With the single digitlotteries of other states also closing up, not only were there disgruntled lottery seekers, but also disappointed lottery agents who had to make do with thinner crowds at their stalls.

``Even lottery agents are humans,'' says Suresh Bhagat of the Akhil Hindustan Lottery Vikreta Sena, ``how do you expect them to survive if there are no sales?'' The organisation has been parleying for the entire year with state government officials as well as the Shiv Sena chief for his intervention asking for more lotteries, bumper draws and guarantees of awards for the big buyers. At a meeting held two weeks back, Bal Thackeray apparently gave his consent for relaunching lotteries for the three remaining days of the week.

Another major complaint of the lottery agents was that the lucky ticket was not being drawn from ones that had been sold but from the heaps that remained unsold. The Akhil Hindustan Lottery Vikreta Sena felt it was cheating the buyer. Admitting the anomaly, Mirikar assured that this would berectified.

Also agreeing to the demands of the lottery sellers the state government has agreed to restart `Pushkaraj' as a part of the new package that will be returning to the streets of Mumbai.

According to Mirikar, there are at least 34 main lottery agents in the city with around 1000 sub agents. ``State lotteries are great revenue earners for the state,'' says Bhagat, ``one should not forget that the Vidhan Bhavan was constructed through the earnings of the Maharashtra State Lottery.''