BENGALURU: After recent protests by employees of various bars and restaurants over the shutting down of these establishments, residents of Indiranagar said the protest was to ‘gain public sympathy’, and demanded strict enforcement of law. The federation of I Change Indiranagar (ICIN) said that before setting up businesses that covers NOC, pubs should obtain industry specific license from various government departments — health, building byelaws, fire safety, pollution control, law and order, traffic, excise, labour, BESCOM and BWSSB — and should be renewed annually to ensure safety of employees and neighbours.
Sneha Nandihal, a member of ICIN, said, “Some of these rules are for their own employees’ well being. We fail to understand how the Restaurant and Bars Association is blind to this fact and is giving this issue an emotional twist of the staff losing jobs. Restaurant and bar owners are using employees to push their agenda of capitalism and profiteering.”
The residents also pointed out that they face air pollution due to commercial kitchen chimneys. Though paid parking is available in many commercial establishments, pubs blatantly use all roads, including the no parking roads.Even resident welfare associations from the Shantinagar constituency and Koramangala RWA joined and spoke up. “In Koramangala, it is an everyday problem. They start the music around 10 pm and continue till 2.30 am on the weekends.
That is the time we go to bed, but because of the loud music, it gets so difficult for us and we are forced to inform the police. In fact, there are times when the management of certain pubs came and threatened us for calling up the police,” said Parvathi Srirama, member of Koramangala RWA.The residents said, according to the rules, all micro breweries need to have a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) but none of them so, which is another violation.