Goa minister wants shifting of offshore casinos included in

Goa Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte today said he will demand that the issue of shifting offshore casinos out of Mandovi river be included in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the BJP-led state government, at a meeting scheduled here on April 17.
"There are a few points which I would be stressing to include in the common minimum programme, which would be discussed at the meeting scheduled on April 17," the Independent MLA told PTI.
He said that shifting the casinos out of Mandovi river would be one of the important issues he would be raising at the meeting.
Since he was in opposition, Khaunte, who is currently serving his second term as MLA, has been demanding that the casinos be relocated out of the river, as they are blocking flow of water and causing pollution.

Currently, there are five offshore casinos in the river.
"There will be no compromise on shifting the casinos. The issue will be part of the Common Minimum Programme, which will be worked out among alliance partners in the Manohar Parrikar-led government," he said.

The ruling BJP-led coalition comprises the Goa Forward Party, the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party, and three Independent legislators.
Khaunte said that his stand on an amendment brought by the previous state government to the Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Tree Act last January, which reclassifies coconut plant as palm in the coastal state, was in sync with the Goa Forward Party.

"We want that coconut trees should be protected and they should be classified as tree and not a palm," he said.
While opposition parties had termed the passing of the Act as the "facilitation of the mass massacre of coconut trees" in Goa, then Environment Minister Rajendra Arlekar had said that the reclassification did not give any easy permit to people to fell coconut trees.