PANJIM: The State government which has allowed promotion of casinos to attract high-end tourists is now ashamed of offering the same to the delegates, who have started arriving in Goa for G20 meetings scheduled to be held from April to July this year.
In order to save Goa’s image from being tarnished, all metal barricades with casino branding in Panjim are now being covered hastily using white cloth pieces ahead of the G20 meetings that commences from April 17.
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“It is surprising to see that the road barricades supplied by the casinos in Panjim have been covered by the Goa government in order to blank out the names of these casino operators so that the power of the casinos over Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led government is not noticed by the G20 delegates,” former Mayor and senior-most councillor, Surendra Furtado said.
“Panjimites are now used to the casinos and have absorbed the fact that a few MLAs and the BJP government are bosom pals of the casino lobby since inception. So it reeks of hypocrisy when the casinos do not get their due recognition from the BJP for international and national events, though they are juiced by the BJP government. I am sure of world knows the fact that the Goa government is fully dependent on casinos for its survival,” he added.
He further said that the casinos have been the “lifeline and ATM of the BJP and its government” in Goa, adding that the BJP depends on the casinos for revenue, sponsorships, election funding, jobs, private entertainment, etc. Also the hotels of certain ruling party MLAs have been fully leased out to the casinos.
“The Goa government is only covering the barricades, why leave the casino vessels? They should be also covered using white clothes or removing it from River Mandovi, if the government is concerned about saving Goa’s image from tarnishing,” Sandeep Shirodkar, a city resident said.
Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Naik said that the City Corporation has not taken up the work to cover the metal barricades bearing casino branding.
“CCP has nothing to do with it. We are not aware who is covering the barricades. It may be that barricades are being covered in view of G20 by G20 cell,” Naik said.
Sanjit Rodrigues who is the nodal officer for G20, was not available for comments.
