Mumbai : The licensing department of the Mumbai Police has adopted a ‘go slow’ approach with regard to issuing of licenses for dance bars in the city, even as everyone waits for the proposed legislation by the State Government.
The Supreme Court had instructed the Mumbai Police to start issuing licenses to these bars after the latter appealed to them that these joints cannot be banned. The bar owners had said that the bar dancers and other staff working there have a right to livelihood even though the state government can impose conditions to prevent obscenity at these places.
However, not a single license has been issued since then, and the four licenses that were issued last month were withdrawn by the administration. There are about 75 applications still pending with the licensing department and there appears to be no progress on this front.
When asked about this, deputy police commissioner (HQ), claimed that they are working on the licenses, though in a slow manner.
“We are still doing the process of verification to see whether the applicants have met with the pre conditions that have been set for them,” he said. But the fact is that they are all waiting for the State Government to come out with the new legislation that will decide the future of this case.
However, another senior police official said that the whole exercise is in a state of limbo, and there have been no fresh applications since the last few days. “The hoteliers are aware that there is no point in wasting time in making applications since the new legislation is likely to be presented in the ongoing session of the state assembly,” he pointed out.
In any case, the next date for hearing in the SC in this matter will be on April 18 and it is expected that the new law will be in force by then and this will be explained to the SC, he said. Reacting to this situation, Pravin Agarwal, a hotelier from Borivali(E), said that the police is deliberately going slow on the issuing of licenses since they do not want to commit themselves before the new law comes into force.
“The entire issue has been going back and forth so many times that we are just not sure what is going to happen next,” he said.
