Team Herald
PANJIM: So this is clear. There is very little possibility of any of the casino boats moving out of the Mandovi anytime soon, if the BJP government comes back to power in 2017, clearly because of revenue reasons.
In an election related interview to Herald and its TV arm HCN, as part of a series called IN CONVERSATION, the Chief Minister, in response to the following question, ‘Can you promise that casinos will be out of the Mandovi within one year of coming into government’, gave this response: “No I would not like to do that because till date the casinos are on the Mandovi. The most affected should have been the Panjim people, but during the by-election after Manoharji went to Delhi, the opposition made casinos, an issue. Inspite of that Siddarth Kuncalienkar won by 5500 lead and therefore casinos are not the issue. One more thing, when we are encouraging investment, (we should know that) these are the people who invested in Goa. We cannot kick out investors and we cannot throw away investors, it will send the wrong signal.”
On the direct charge that the government has made U-turns on the casino issue, CM Parsekar said, “Let me clarify. It was in 2008 or 2009 that the number of casinos started increasing in the Mandovi. Our party as opposition had objected to it. It was because of our objection that the number of casinos could not exceed six by the then Congress government so much so the one vessel that had come there which is still standing over there could not be converted into a casino by the Congress. Then after BJP came to power in 2012, there were a number of proposals for new casinos to which we did not accept. Moreover, we could not remove them out which we initiated steps, we explored the possibility of alternative sites. We could not get the appropriate sites till date. It is not we have given up but simultaneously we have taken care to see that the Mandovi is not polluted.”
Thus the bottom line is that the BJP government isn’t likely to touch the casinos anytime soon.
