Relocate off-shore casino on land provided by govt: Lobo

CALANGUTE: Calangute MLA Michael Lobo on Monday suggested that to resolve the off-shore casino issue, the government should relocate them on land and provide land for the purpose.
He continued to make suggestions to end some of the major issues dogging the government. Last week, the BJP leadership tried to pacify him as he had made a charge of inefficiency against five ministers of the BJP.
On Monday, he also spoke on other issues like tourism. It makes no sense for the tourism department to commission a non-Goan agency to prepare a master plan for tourism in Goa, said Calangute MLA Michael Lobo. The government should take locals into confidence before thrusting any major tourism project on them, he added.
Lobo addressed a press conference on Monday, saying, “There are a number of pending issues. If we want to take coastal tourism to another level, we need a proper plan. It cannot be done by someone from outside Goa. We need to do it ourselves because we are the people who are carrying out tourism business. For this we also need bigger budgets. What we are doing now is piecemeal development of infrastructure; a bridge here, a road widened there, a new sub-station at Calangute. All this should be done with a proper plan, for which we need a bigger budget. If we don’t upgrade our infrastructure and facilities, we will only get bus tourists; the number of foreign tourists have already decreased.”
He cited the example of Sri Lanka which took a huge loan from the World Bank to develop its tourism infrastructure. “We should also take such a loan and create the required infrastructure at one go,” he said.
He also said the government should terminate the contract with Drishti as they are mistreating the largely Goan lifeguards, adding that if he is part of the ruling side after the next assembly elections, he would make sure that the contract is terminated.
“They are paid 26 crore every year, given numerous facilities and equipment including jet skis and jeeps, and they spend only around 8 crore on lifeguards’ salaries. Almost 98% of lifeguards are Goans, but not one of them is a supervisor. If they stay away from work for one day, their salaries are cut, and if they complain, they are arbitrarily transferred to distant places. They should be directly employed by the tourism department because Drishti is being paid money which belongs to Goans and tourism in Goa should benefit Goans first,” Lobo said.