Thiruvananthapuram, June 9 (IANS) "Karunya Lottery", the brainchild of state Finance Minister K.M. Mani, has set aside Rs.36.50 crore for new dialysis machines.
The income from the sale of the "Karunya Lottery" tickets is exclusively meant for extending financial assistance to poor patients ailing from diseases of the kidney, heart, nerves and liver, or haemophilia and cancer.
"Twenty-seven hospitals at the district- and taluk-levels will get dialysis machines at a cost of Rs.31.50 crore. The five state-run medical colleges also will have new dialysis units and Rs.5 crore has been set aside for it," said Mani in a press release issued here Sunday.
Since being launched in October 2011, the scheme, under which Rs.150.83 crore was disbursed, has benefitted 14,895 people.
"Karunya Lottery" comes out with an attractive prize structure, offering Rs.1 crore as first prize every week. The cost of each lottery ticket is Rs.50.
State-owned Kerala Lotteries, under which "Karunya" is administered, has never made a loss since its inception in 1967. The total revenue from lottery sales in the first year was Rs.20 lakh. Total sales of Kerala lotteries for the last fiscal stood at Rs.2,778.80 crore, with a profit of Rs.681.76 crore.
Currently there are more than 35,000 authorised agents and over 100,000 retail sellers in the state who sell tickets of these lotteries.
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