“Few BJP leaders have mortgaged Goa and Goans and the entire government machinery and law of the land to casino lobby for personal gains. We demand that the ED and Income Tax department probe the State BJP leaders and their transactions with casino industry,” Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said on Tuesday.
Kawthankar said that BJP took to the streets demanding the removal of offshore casino vessels from River Mandovi in 2008 and had said that revenue from casinos is not required to run the government, after the March 2012 elections, completely deviated from their earlier stand and gave a free run to the industry to ruin Goa.
“The reason for this sudden softening of its stand and the consideration for sweetening the understanding between BJP and casino operators should be probed,” he demanded.
Congress alleged that even after huge cash transaction taking place in the casinos, the government has failed to impose any concrete mechanism to monitor the same. “Hawala operators are used to arrange huge cash on and off casinos to the players and hawala chains are infamous for their links with terror activities,” Kawthankar said.
Congress also slammed the Union government over selectively targetting the mining industry, by way of directing Income Tax officials to scrutinise discrepancies in financial statements of mining companies for black money transactions.
“The move of the Central government seems like a selective targeting of the mining industry to extort money for party funds,” Kawthankar charged.
He pointed out that even after one year in power, the Central government has failed to get the black money stashed abroad.
