Goa casinos not to gamble for a night, thanks to Mahatma
GOANEWS & PTI, PANAJI | 01 October 2014 19:24 IST
As a mark of respect to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, the cream of Indian society will not gamble in the waters of Goa on 2 October, the Gandhi Jayanti Day.
The rest 364 days of the year, the off-shore and on-shore casinos will see gamblers literally playing day and night, round the clock.
"As part of the move, playing games in the casinos has been prohibited. However, people would be allowed entry into the casinos only for the purpose of attending other entertainment programmes and events and for availing the restaurant facility," Parrikar said.
"Since the decision to shut down casinos for a day has been taken at the last minute, we are allowing the entry to casino staff, but from next year onwards the casinos would be shut down completely," Parrikar said.
Perhaps for the first time in last two and a half years, chief minister Manohar Parrikar has responded positively to the opposition demand, to make casinos stop working on the Gandhi birth anniversary.
The nine-member Congress in the 40-member Goa Assembly had made this demand.
A notification in this regard was issued today by the state government, stating that all casinos in Goa will stop its operations from 12 midnight to 12 midnight, from tonight.
The Congress has welcomed the decision, calling it as the first sensible decision and a positive U turn of Parrikar in the last two and a half years of his term till date.
"For the first time, Congress put up a sensible demand and that is why we decided to accept it," he added.
On the other hand, Parrikar has issued orders that government offices and even educational institutes will remain open on 2nd October, in order to take a clean-up drive of the campus, as a follow-up of Swatch Bharat Nitall Goem.
