TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM : Curtorim legislator Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco has charged the government of making a U-turn and not shutting casinos that fail to pay the licence fees after due date expires as per his assurance.

Despite Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar saying that he would raid and shut the casinos the very next day after the due date for payment of licence fee expires, no action has been taken even four days later, Curtorim legislator Reginaldo Lourenco has observed while calling Parrikar’s bluff at a press conference Tuesday. 

“The deadline for the payment of the licence fee which was earlier fixed for 14 August was later extended to 17 August. Today (Tuesday) is the fourth day after the deadline lapsed but the state’s home department is totally powerless on taking any action against casinos. All such casinos who have not paid the new license fee are now illegal,” Reginaldo said. 

“Like in other cases, be it illegal mining, MoI, Atala, etc. it seems this BJP government does not practice what it preaches. This is another classic U-turn by Parrikar-bab,” Reginaldo said adding that even the government’s new rule to ban Goans from entering casinos appears doubtful and that the government despite all its talk has developed a soft corner for casinos. 

Reginaldo further went to the extent of saying that the government is slowly ‘murdering democracy.’ He cited the examples such as the Cortalim by-poll, forcefully enrolling new members into the BJP by asking applicants to fill BJP membership forms along with the Laadli Laxmi forms, besides also rigging the Mahila Shakti Abhiyan Election, the GCA election and the pulling over two members of the Mule GSCB panel onto his side. 

“This sets a bad precedent for democracy,” Reginaldo said while narrating a chain of events, where the BJP had flip flopped on its earlier position which it had taken while in the opposition and in the run up to the elections.