JOIN USIn a first, the Panaji Municipal Corporation on Friday started an anti-encroachment drive against the offices of offshore casinos in the state capital, demolishing hoardings and a facade of a newly inaugurated offshore casino, for alleged encroachment of a footpath.
The action comes after newly-elected Panaji MLA Atanasio Monserrate of the Congress had promised that the offshore casinos would be moved out of the Mandovi river off Panaji, within 100 days.
“We have received multiple complaints about the casino offices encroaching the footpaths. They even conduct business on footpaths by putting tables on the footpaths at night, leaving no place for people to walk,” Panaji mayor Uday Madkaikar told DH after a portion of the encroaching structure was demolished by the Corporation’s workers.
While the six offshore casinos operate from the midst of the Mandovi river, casino patrons are ferried to the casino in small boats which line the shore offices on the bank of the river.
Madkaikar said that the Corporation was merely following standing instructions of a Supreme Court order, which mandates civic authorities to clear footpaths of encroachment, without issuing notices.
Speaking to reporters, Panaji MLA Monserrate said that he was confident of moving the offshore casinos out of the Mandovi river within the stipulated time of 100 days.
“I have formally asked the Chief Minister to move the offshore casinos. The boats have to go, as the casino industry is destroying the city,” Monserrate said.
Goa’s political parties have a chequered history as far as the casino industry is concerned.
Ahead of the 2012 state Assembly poll, the BJP, which had led a sustained campaign against the casino industry for several years, had promised that if voted to power, its government would rid the Mandovi of the offshore casinos, most of which obtained licences under the erstwhile Congress-led coalition government.
But after successive BJP-led coalition governments failed to move the offshore casinos, the Congress as well as civil society groups have now accused the BJP of being hand-in-glove with the casino industry.