BHUBANESWAR: Excise department has tightened its noose on the dance bars in the State Capital and rejected at least three applications seeking permission to engage women employees in musical programmes as they reportedly failed to comply with the required criteria.
About 17 dance bars-cum-restaurants in the city have applied for permission to allow them to engage women employees in musical programmes/orchestra. Of them, the Excise department rejected applications of three bars as they failed to comply with mainly two conditions - CCTV footage of 90 days and lack of fire safety measures.
Excise sources said two to three other applications seeking permission to engage women employees in bars are under scrutiny and they could also be rejected if any violations are noticed. The department is giving importance to CCTV footage of three months to ensure bar owners are not violating any conditions while engaging women employees in musical programmes.
“As per the rules, dance bar owners can hire women employees aged 21 years and above. However, the non-availability of three months of CCTV footage has raised suspicion of alleged discrepancies in the entire process,” said an official. Sources said Excise department officials noticed that many of the applicants do not have the CCTV footage of their bars for a period of three months.
“There have been allegations that bar owners are submitting the identity proof of some women but engaging others in the musical programmes. We are also finding it difficult to verify the claims as they do not have adequate storage to keep CCTV footage of three months,” said the official. This apart, the officials are not able to examine the working conditions of the women employees due to the absence of the CCTV footage, he added.
On August 7, Dhauli police had arrested Nasha bar owner Siba Prasad Mohanty and his associate Jyoti Prakash Nayak for allegedly harassing six women employees hailing from New Delhi and Punjab. The city police said they will now keep a record of the women employees working in bars here to avoid any further untoward incident.
Meanwhile, Bar and Restaurant Association of Odisha said the bar owners are sustaining heavy losses as Excise department is yet to give them permission to engage women employees.
“Every year, permission is granted to us in April to engage women employees in bars. However, we could not obtain the permission this year as the model code of conduct came into force and then there was a change in the government. Bar-cum-restaurant owners are sustaining heavy losses as Excise department is yet to give us the permission to engage women employees,” said the association secretary Satya Mohanty.