the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Goa unit president Vinay Tendulkar on Tuesday said that the party was always against offshore casinos. He also said that the party will also demand closure of the onshore casinos if the people so demand.
“We are with the people. The party’s demand is that offshore casinos should be shut. If people don’t want onshore casinos, which function from five-star hotels, they too will be closed,” said Tendulkar.
He said that BJP has requested the BJP-led coalition government to shut the offshore casino industry, after the licences of the current casino operations expire.
He explained the government problem about shutting down casinos. He said that congress has given permission to offshore casino and the casino can’t be shut as it will give bad signal to investors, he added.
Casino has become a poll prank in the Panaji Bye-poll elections candidates of the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Goa Suraksha Manch have already promised in their respective poll manifestos closure of offshore casinos.
Tendulkar said, the BJP has formally requested the state government to shut the offshore casinos, parked in the Mandovi river off Panaji, and that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has promised to look into the issue.
“We have been assured that the government is thinking about it and that if time comes, we will shut casinos,” Tendulkar said.
When in the opposition from 2007 to 2012, the BJP vociferously opposed casino operations in Goa, most of the licences for which had been granted by the Congress-led coalition governments.
Top BJP leaders, including late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, on several occasions had promised to close the offshore casino industry once it assumed power in the
coastal state.
