Amid protests across Goa, Panjim residents oppose new casino ship in Mandovi river

As residents of several parts of Goa have been protesting against a provision of the Town Planning Act that opens green zones up for construction, many in the state capital have been up in arms against another development: the imminent arrival of a new 112-metre-long casino ship on the Mandovi river.

The casino ship, which is likely to reach Goa by the end of February, will be anchored in Verem Bay in the Mandovi river, opposite central Panjim.

Goa is already home to six offshore casinos and 18 casinos in five-star hotels on land. Since at least 2008, Panjim residents and civil society groups have protested against the casinos, and documented how the ships and related infrastructure has polluted the Mandovi river with sewage and effluents, affecting marine ecology. Residents have also said noise from the casinos late into the night disrupts their lives.

As of January, three of the six offshore vessels in the Mandovi are owned by casino and gaming company Delta Corp – MV Royale Floatel, with a capacity of 70 passengers, MV Horseshoe, branded as “Deltin Royale” which can accommodate 390 passengers, and MV “Deltin JAQK” with a capacity of 384.

The new vessel, with a capacity of 2,000 passengers, has been referred to as a “replacement” for MV Royale Floatel, shows correspondence between Delta Corp and the Goa government, obtained by activist Sudip Tamhankar under the Right to Information Act.

All correspondence from the Delta Pleasure Cruise Company is signed by “Authorised Signatory”, with no name or designation.

The Goa government has repeatedly said that the number of casinos is not being increased. But the capacity of the new vessel is more than all five existing offshore casinos put together.

Since early February, work to install mooring buoys and anchors to stabilise the massive ship is underway despite protests from residents on both banks of the Mandovi river.

Hundreds turned up in support at a public meeting in Panjim against casinos on February 17. Presentations by activists and academicians demonstrated, with evidence and data, how the casino industry affects Goa’s water and cities along the river.

Also endorsing the campaign against casinos is the “Enough is Enough” movement started by retired Justice Ferdino Rebello.

The movement’s 10-point charter seeks to prevent “further ecological and environmental degradation” of Goa and to “protect the state’s culture and ethos”.

One of the points of the charter is the removal of casinos from the Mandovi river in six months. Citizens are also urgently exploring legal options against the new casino ship.

Soon after, on February 23, protesters from across Goa gathered outside the home of Goa minister Vishwajit Rane in Dona Paula and demanded the scrapping of Section 39(a) of the Goa Town Planning Act, which residents say will divert more land towards commercial activities. Rane is the state’s town planning minister. A few days earlier, on February 21, Rane had criticised the protests against casinos saying that removing them could affect Panjim economically and socially.

But the protests across the state signal growing anger among Goa’s residents over how the ecological and social resources are being rapidly consumed by tourism and commercial activities, affecting the lives and health of ordinary citizens.

In Panjim, for instance, the casino industry has visibly transformed the city – for the worse. Casino workers have taken over large areas of Panjim’s heritage ward Sao Tome and the riverfront. The 24x7 nature of the industry results in hundreds of workers entering the city, parking their vehicles and heading to work on the ships or at the land offices.

Cars operated by the casinos pick up customers and drop them to their complimentary hotels, occupying the limited parking spaces.

Large hoardings and blindingly bright LED signage dot the skyline, inviting tourists to gamble on the ships or hotel facilities. Even police barricades and streetlight signs are covered with casino branding. Unlike tobacco and alcohol, advertising gambling does not seem to come with any warnings. In fact, even children’s birthday parties are offered at offshore casinos, in an attempt to whitewash casinos and gambling as a “family entertainment” activity.

Scroll emailed Dilip Vaidya, the company secretary and compliance officer for Delta Corp, asking how the company will address concerns raised by the citizens about sound and light pollution by the new casino ship, and how effluent and sewage discharge into the Mandovi river will be managed. This report will be updated if he responds.

Octavio Rodrigues, the captain of ports of the Goa government, told Scroll that he has yet to receive certificates on the fitness and service condition of the new vessel, after which he will inform the state home department. Concerns about pollution and related problems will have to be taken up with the pollution control board and the home department, he said.

Scroll texted Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who handles the Home Department, and Goa Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte. This report will be updated if they respond.

Activists such as Sudip Tamhankar, and the residents of Reis-Magos, where the new vessel is likely to be anchored, have opposed the offshore casino since as early as 2019. For several years now, Tamhankar has been approaching the National Green Tribunal and the judiciary to draw attention to the effects of the casino industry in Goa.

The documents obtained by Tamhankar through the RTI show that on November 17, 2020, the Goa government granted Delta Pleasure Cruise Company Private Limited “in-principle no-objection approval” for the “brand new vessel”. Registered as PNJ-1008, the new vessel, which is 112 metres long and 28 metres wide, was built at the Hangarkatta Udupi port at an estimated cost of Rs 120 crore.

An indemnity bond of just Rs 100, signed by “Authorised signatory” and notarised by a local notary, states that all risks are of the owners – which absolves the government of any responsibility in case of any accidents or mishaps.

Other necessary permissions and no-objection certificates for the new vessel were issued by the Goa government between 2019-2024. Like most projects, these approvals went mostly unnoticed until the work actually began.

In the first week of February, Panjim residents spotted barges with cranes in the Mandovi river working in one of the last remaining free spaces between existing casino jetties and the controversial new Santa Monica jetty terminal. Residents, including this writer, tried to find out more, but apart from videos documenting the barge activity, no information was available.

On February 4, videos by activists surfaced, claiming that the work was for a new casino ship. This writer contacted local activists Patricia Pinto and Sabina Martins. We called an informal meeting with residents of the heritage wards of Sao Tome, Fontainhas and other parts of Panjim on February 7 to conduct a public inspection of the work. We saw that six mooring buoys had been installed, lending credence to the rumours about a new vessel in the river.

The group decided to meet Mayor Rohit Monseratte, the head of the Corporation of the City of Panaji. During the meeting on February 9, citizens said that the new casino ship must not be allowed into the Mandovi river due to the overwhelming burden caused by existing vessels.

They asked the civic body to pass a resolution against allowing the ship into the city. But Monseratte said that the civic body has no jurisdiction over the Mandovi and “what happens in the river has nothing to do with the corporation”.

In the presence of the media, Monserrate invited the citizens’ group to attend a meeting of the Corporation of the City of Panaji at 11 am on February 12 and discuss the resolution drafted by us. But that meeting never took place

Instead, when citizens arrived at the civic body’s office, they were met by police present in the building. At 11 am, the delegation went up to the conference hall only to find out that there was a meeting about to start but for vendors at the approaching pre-Lenten Carnival.

Since the Mayor had invited us, we decided to wait until we were informed otherwise. Citizens, including 102-year-old freedom fighter Libia Lobo Sardessai, waited at the office for several hours. The peaceful gathering suddenly turned violent when the police bodily dragged away Valmiki Naik, the Goa president of the Aam Aadmi Party and a member of the group, creating a furore.

Over the next 48 hours, the mayor, while speaking to the media, accused the citizens of lying, and alleged that the timing of the citizens’ protest was suspicious – elections to the Panjim civic body have been announced for March 11. He also claimed that he had informed “two people” that the meeting wasn’t happening.

But that morning, when citizens were gathering at the civic body building, Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Naik, before leaving the premises, told the press that he was not aware of any meeting.

Panjim citizens still tried to reach out to ministers and politicians.

Letters and representations have been given to Panjim member of legislative assembly Antanasio Monserrate, the Captain of Ports, and other bodies that grant casino operation permits. Digambar Kamat, Goa’s minister of ports, said he would get an appointment to raise these concerns with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is also minister for home, the department that issues the casino licence.

In the meantime, work in the Mandovi river continues at a rapid pace, despite attempts by villagers to stop it.

Accommodating the new vessel in Mandovi waters is like playing a dangerous game of marine Tetris, shows an examination of the documents obtained under the RTI and information received from the Captain of Ports, Panaji.

On October 14, 2022, the Goa government issued a no-objection certificate to Delta Pleasure Cruise Company to replace the MV Royale Floatel with a new ship. In the certificate, the government proposed shifting various vessels around Panjim port to accommodate the new casino mega-ship.

The only available space wide and deep enough for the new ship is the Verem Bay. Until late January, the Deltin Royale was anchored at that spot, leaving little space for two ships. The villagers of Reis Magos, where both ships would have been anchored, protested and refused to give permission, saying that it would kill fish and clams that they collect in the area.

Now, to make space for the mega-casino, two existing casino ships will be moved in stages, which will include dredging of the Mandovi river on the Panjim side, to accommodate the re-shuffling.

On February 12, just before dawn, the Deltin Royale was shifted to a new location closer to the New Patto bridge, allowing for the work at Verem-Reis Magos to commence, according to a notice issued by the Captain of Ports Department as well as the observations of the citizens’ group.

This, in itself, has created a whole new set of problems for residents along the river: there is loud music from the open deck of the Deltin Royale, the glare of LED lighting from the ship, which is docked barely 100m from the river bank, bright lighting which is streaming into homes throughout the night, and the added nuisance of more tourists, many coming to take selfies with the casino ship.

Having restarted the fight against casinos in earnest, residents hope to finally galvanise the state government and society into cleaning up the casino industry’s mess.

In her presentation at the citizens’ meeting on February 17, advocate Albertina Almeida said that in law, according to the principle of Res Extra Commercium businesses, goods, or activities, which are inherently harmful or against public policy, are excluded from legal commerce. So why is the government continuing with casinos when they cannot be justified, she asked.

Sewage in the Mandovi river and the rotting fish are a sign of the river dying while renting out its water has become a lucrative business. Elsa Fernandes, an environmental architect, said during the citizens’ meeting that the Mandovi river is an important asset of the state capital. “The governance of that cannot be that we put that asset on rent,” she said.

The people’s movement across Goa is gaining strength with fresh agitations against illegalities and the destruction of natural resources. The fight against casinos is just one such effort to restore some balance against what has been irrevocably lost. As centenarian Libia Lobo Sardessai said “We want to eat fish, not casino dirt.”

Chryselle D’Silva Dias is a journalist based in Goa. Her handle on X is @chryselled.

Source: Scroll
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