MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Friday announced that it would enact a law to ban dance bars in the state in spite the Supreme Court having okayed its reopening.
“Earlier, we had taken the decision to ban dance bars emotionally. Now, we are going to take it on a solid legal base. Both the Solicitor General and Advocate General had advised the government in 2014 to not take the decision emotionally, but the government overlooked them. They had also prepared the draft of a Bill which would enable the government to impose such a ban, but we didn’t consider it,” Fadnavis said. He said bars that fulfilled the 21 conditions would be issued licenses from March 15 as per the SC’s order. “We had laid 22 conditions for dance bar owners. The SC has struck down only one among them. We are ready to issue licenses if the owners fulfil the remaining 21 conditions,” he said. The SC had discarded the state government’s plan to install CCTV cameras inside dance bars and provide live streaming of the activities in the bar to the nearest police station.
Maharashtra Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar directed the government to form a joint committee of members of both Houses of the Legislature to study the draft legislation banning dance bars.
Raj Withdraws Threat
MNS chief Raj Thackeray has withdrawn his threat to new rickshaws owned by non-Maharashtrians. MNS leader Shirish Sawant argued that the threat has been withdrawn because some anti-social elements were taking undue advantage of the situation. Earlier, Raj had asked workers to torch such rickshaws because their drivers may be migrants who secured rickshaw permit without fulfilling the mandatory condition of having stayed in the state for 15 years.