Off-shore casinos are Congress' baby: Parsekar

Panaji, Apr 15: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today termed off-shore casinos as a "mess" created by Congress and said he was forced to deal with the issue which was like taking care of someone else's "children". "Someone had said I was compelled to marry a pregnant woman.

What to do. So, naturally, I am forced to take care of her children," Parsekar remarked while replying to a query as to why the government was not shifting off-shore casinos vessels from Mandovi river. The BJP government had recently extended the time given to these vessels to move out by another year.

"They (Congress) created this mess and now they are criticizing our government. You should recall who was in the power from 1994 to 1999...We were not the part of the government then," he said, responding to Goa Congress chief Luzinho Faleiro's remark that Goa has become "sin city" because of the offshore casinos.

"We are trying our level best to shift the casino vessels out of Mandovi. Even while giving extension by one year...We have said one year or till we find alternate place, whichever is earlier," Parsekar said. The Government will not allow any more offshore casinos to come up, he said.

To another question, Parsekar said he could not abandon the investors. "We can't discard the investors because some other government had invited them...We go around attracting investors and if we disturb the old investors that will send a wrong signal," he said. He also said that closure of off-shore casinos would affect the livelihood of 2,000 youths employed by them.

PTI