Team Herald
PANJIM: With just a day left for the deadline to lapse for the offshore casino operators to shift their vessels out of River Mandovi, the Congress Party has demanded that the government not grant any further extension and immediately cancel licenses of all the offshore casinos which fail to move out as per State Cabinet decision of August last year.
Addressing the media, Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said it is the 4th anniversary of BJP’s love relation with the casino lobby that has been granted protection by the government.
“In August 2015, the State Cabinet had set March 31, 2016 as deadline for relocation of casinos from Mandovi which ends tomorrow (Thursday), surprisingly instead of taking action on casinos for not moving to sea the government is hunting for an alternative site for casinos, why this special status for casinos?” he questioned.
Kawthankar demanded that the government immediately cancel the license of all offshore casinos that are not moving out of the Mandovi.
and not grant any further extension.
The cabinet is likely to meet on Thursday to decide on whether to grant further extension to the vessels to shift out of river Mandovi or till an alternative site is identified.
Congress also objected to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s statement inviting defence equipment manufacturing units to set up in Goa, claiming that such industry are red category and highly polluted.
“Such heavy industries will put additional burden on existing limited infrastructure like power guzzling units and others,” Kawthankar said.
He said the Chief Minister’s statement raises serious concerns as such heavy industries will attract a workforce from outside Goa burdening the already overburdened State with migrant population.
