SANGUEM
Taking no chances, Sanguem Boys who had announced the conduct of housie games at Sanguem on the occasion of Gudi Padwa cancelled the games alongwith the musical show which was scheduled to be held on Sunday.
Many youth who had travelled to Sanguem from neerby villages to play the housie games returned disappointed.
There was no sign of any programme at Sanguem and neither was stage being set up to conduct the cultural programme till late in the evening.
The organisers had announced a whopping prize amounting to Rs 20 lakh for the housie games scheduled to be held on Sunday which included cash prize of Rs 10 lakh for the first full house, Rs 5 lakh for the second full house, Rs 2 lakh for the third full house and Rs 1 lakh each for horizontal line, Jaldi 5 and Jaldi 7.
However the housie game had to be cancelled on account of recent strictures issued by SP South which has directed all police stations in South Goa to stop the conduct of housie games after terming the games as illegal and expressed the need ban them.
It is in the light of the anticipated police action that the much awaited housie games were reportedly cancelled in Sanguem.
It is pertinent to note here that though housie games were played at almost all corners of the State during football tournaments and festive occasions, it attracted the police eye much recently after the organisers increased the prize money to several lakhs of rupees as against a few thousands offered at the traditional housie games which would cost around Rs 10 to Rs 50 per housie ticket as against the recent increase in housie tickets prices to Rs 1,000 for every three tickets.
