PANJIM: Two days after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that casinos are an important part of Goa’s tourism, Congress reiterated its stand that the ‘Government and BJP are controlled by the casino lobby’.
While interacting with mediapersons on Tuesday, Chief Minister claimed the government had never said that they will weed out casinos from the State as they are important for the tourism sector.
Reacting to this, Congress State Chief Girish Chodankar said BJP was now taking a u-turn, having opposed casinos initially.
“Late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar even threatened to finish off the industry. Removal of casinos from river Mandovi was their base for fighting the 2012 assembly elections. But now they are defending it, calling it an integral part of tourism,” said Chodankar.
Pointing to the government’s failure to appoint a Gaming Commission, as proposed by the BJP-led government in 2012, Chodankar said that the government has no control over the casino business.
“Casinos have complete control over Goa. Every BJP MLA has been given an ATM. Chief Minister’s statement is a clear indication that he is being managed by casinos,” Chodankar added.
He further alleged that the casino industry is depriving the state exchequer of Rs. 5,000 crore annually by under-reporting its footfalls.
“Even the BJP cadres’ tours are sponsored by casino lobbies. In fact, we have even heard, that casinos sponsor and manage all the family functions of the BJP workers and leaders,” Chodankar charged.
“Casinos are only showing 10 per cent entry. 90 per cent activities on the casinos are illegal. Most of the transactions including buying of gambling chips are in cash and not accounted for. But the government has no mechanism to keep a check on the casino operations,” he stated.
Further recalling CMs Twitter post on Wednesday, in which he had uploaded a video of him stopping his convoy to caution a person dumping ‘nirmalya’ into a river, Chodankar said “CM can warn a biker…a commoner not to pollute a river and we do appreciate that but he has no stern words for the offshore casinos who are dumping sewage into the Mandovi river and polluting it”.
