PANJIM: State government on Wednesday directed all off-shore and on-shore casinos to shut operation on October 2 for 24 hours, in view of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, which is observed as dry day.
The decision is a fallout of the Congress demand, which dared the government to shut down casino operations for one day on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
Addressing media persons after the Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said casino operations would be shut from midnight Wednesday to midnight of October 2. “For the first time Congress party had come out with a sensible and correct demand and the Cabinet accepted it,” Parrikar said.
The Chief Minister, however, said that the entry to casinos would be provided only for entertainment and restaurant but no casino operation and liquor would be served.
“Since the decision to shut casinos for a day has been taken at the last minute we are allowing people to enter. But from next year onwards operations would be shut down completely,” Parrikar said.
The State’s main Opposition Congress party had demanded that the casinos should be shut on October 2, as a mark of respect to Mahatma Gandhi. Reacting to the government decision, Congress spokesperson Durgadas Kamat said, “probably this is a sensible and positive U-turn by the Chief Minister taken in last two-and-half years of governance”.
Chief Minister is on record that all the off-shore casinos would be shifted out of River Mandovi by December 2015. Currently there are five off-shore casinos operational in River Mandovi.
