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Nagpur: Dance bars are all set to make a foot tapping come back but mind it before you roll on!! It comes with a rigid bar of law! As the Supreme Court stayed orders banning dance bars in Maharashtra, the State Government is busy working on the legislation to provide fresh licenses. Meanwhile the old time patrons in Nagpur are keenly looking forward to taste that musical sip with swagger yet again, on the other, the fresh booze enthusiasts are excited to get that scintillating effect for the very first time! Moreover, the girls who were rendered jobless in the aftermath of previous ban are pushing up their steam to pull off on the dance floor once again! Sources said the scenario has made a conducive invite for the fresh lot of girls who are willing to dance in bars.
Few bars including The Golden Spoon Bar on Abhyankar Road at Munje Square, Needos Bar at Munje Square and Lahoree Deluxe in Dharampeth have already applied for the license, while few others are in dilemma over going with it. Before the ban was enforced there were 6 dance bars in Nagpur, of which 2 have been shut down, while one of them have shown disinterest in applying for the license again.
Fear of ‘Hafta’ !
Given the state government’s reluctance in going smooth on the permission, most of the bar owners are quite unwilling to apply for the license. A bar owner having spacious ambience in his property said on condition of anonymity, “When it comes with ‘conditions apply’, this clearly means you will be rounded off every now and then. We do not want to give ‘hafta’ as we already have enough of it.”
Live feed not done!
The state government had earlier set 26 rules to discourage obscenity, following which licenses could be given to run dance. These included series of riders like installing CCTV cameras in the performance areas, live streaming to police control rooms and keeping barricades between dance floors and serving tables to keep the tipplers at bay. But the Supreme Court has disallowed the condition of live monitoring through CCTV and has asked to enforce surveillance at the entrance only. SC had previously asked the Maharashtra government to grant licenses to owners within 10 days after they comply with modified guidelines.
Lash of law…
While the state government is set to bring legislation in the budget session, it holds no bar in disallowing obscenity. “Most of the guidelines set by us have been upheld by the SC and has asked for amendment in some of them. We cannot permit obscenity in dance bars as seen in the past and so we are contemplating a legislation to avoid obscenity, “said Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis. Sources from Chief Minister’s Office informed that the legislation which government intends to bring has stringent measures and would define what a dance bar is. Insiders revealed that that it would define a dance bar, put conditions specifying the number of tables, audience as well as dancers along with making proper precautionary measures mandatory to ensure that any untoward incident is prevented.
‘Achche Din’ for Bar girls!
Nagpur Today spoke to one of the bar girls who earlier performed in dance bar at Needos said it would be hard for her to join the stage again as it’s been a decade and people would certainly want to see ‘something new’. “Though I was overwhelmed when I heard that dance bars would be open now and we would come out of slumber to show our ‘art of swagger’ but I have caught with chronic knee pain all this while. Now it seems to be a bit harder for me but it is still a cheerful move for many like me. We really had to face a lot of hardships and now it seems ‘achche din aa gaye’ (smiles).
