Tourism Minister C.T. Ravi, who had shown inclination towards the State having casinos to boost tourism revenue during an earlier interaction, clarified on Sunday that there was no such proposal before the BJP government.
The Minister’s reaction comes in the wake of the Opposition taking a strong stand against having casinos in Karnataka. Mr. Ravi tweeted on Sunday: “During my interaction with FKCCI, I had mentioned that many countries have promoted tourism through casinos. Isn’t it a fact that lakhs of Indians go abroad to play in casinos? Can anyone stop them? At the moment, there is no proposal before our government to set up casinos here.”
Criticising the proposal, however, the Karnataka Kisan Congress threatened to have card game in front of the Minister’s residence as a mark of protest. In Bidar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah slammed the Tourism Minister over the proposal. Earlier, another Congress leader H.K. Patil had also criticised the proposal.
