Goa’s Casino Industry Embroiled in More Controversy: Casino Employees Applications Rejected by Election Poll Panel

It seems that the woes of Goa’s casino industry are never-ending and as the Lok Sabha elections draw closer, the industry seems to be further immersing itself into controversy. Earlier in the month, news of State Revenue and IT Minister Rohan Khaunte alleging that Goan casino operators were “trying to infiltrate and influence” Lok Sabha elections by enrolling casino employees into the electoral rolls had hit the industry hard. The situation has now gone from bad to worse with the election poll panel rejecting a majority of the applications made by the casino employees in the Porvorim constituency.

On March 28, Khaunte filed a complaint with the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) regarding the alleged “malpractice” being carried out by the casino operators in the state. Khaunte told reporters that the top poll authority should probe all areas where casino clusters exist to check if casino employees, especially those from the north-eastern states, were being enrolled together into the state electoral rolls.

“I have already filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer after I found 820 names of casino employees in my constituency of Porvorim. All the new additions have been routed through one internet protocol (IP) address,” Khaunte had said.

Khaunte believes that the additions were made without the workers’ knowledge. The migrant staff members are not natives of Porvorim, which is the legislative capital of the state of Goa. Most come from other Indian states such as Manipur and Mizoram in the northeast. A few even originate from Nepal.

“People hailing from Mizoram, Manipur and even from Nepal working on casinos, especially on Casino Pride, were trying to get a voter tag. Most of them reside in rented premises at Porvorim and Saligao.I really don’t know the rationale behind this massive exercise, probably at the behest of director of Casino Pride group, Srinivas Nayak. Either he must have taken the election process for granted or he is trying to form a vote bank so that he could try his luck in Goa’s electoral waters,” Khaunte added.

It had been rumored that the Director of Casino Pride Group, Shrinivas Nayak had also been named in Khaunte’s complaint. Nayak had denied any connections or involvement with any political party and claimed that he had merely run an awareness campaign by the Election Commission to encourage young voters under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

The latest development in this matter took place on April 10 when Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Narayan Sawant announced that a majority of the applications made by casino employees who had applied to include their names in the Porvorim constituency have been rejected. Though quite a few of the employees had withdrawn their forms in the aftermath of Khaunte’s allegations, applications of others were rejected since the address proof, and documentation submitted by the casino employees were incorrect.

“We have received the report from the North Goa collector. We are examining the report,” Sawant said. He added, “We are examining the report. The action will be followed after going through the report. Those having valid documents, their applications were accepted. Some applicants even withdrew their applications.”

How this turn of events will impact the future of Goa’s casinos is yet to be seen, but with the elections less than two weeks away, the political scenario in the coastal state is undoubtedly heating up.

Cover Image Courtesy: Hellotravel.com