By George! Bangaloreans can drink in bars till 1 am during weekends
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 1: Even before the Ides of March, Bangaloreans have something to cheer about from the first of March as the Siddaramaiah regime has decided to extend the deadline for closure of bars till 1 am during weekends.
The two hour extension of the closure time, which was announced by Karnataka’s Home Minister K J George on Saturday, will be applicable even for restaurants during all weekends.
But, George added a caveat to the two-hour relaxation in closure hours of bars and restaurants, by making it clear that it be ''restricted to Fridays and Saturdays.”
However, licensed eateries would be allowed to remain open till 1 am on all days of the week in the limits of the Bangalore City Police Commissionerate.
The relaxation in the closure hours of bars and restaurants and eateries would be implemented on an ''experimental basis” for three months from March 1.
"We will review the decision after three months and decide on whether to continue it or otherwise depending on the feedback of the experiment,” he explained.
Bars and restaurants in the city were so far allowed to remain open till 11 pm.
There was also no relaxation in timings for closure of wine shops.
Keeping into account changing life style and working hours in most of the multi-national companies and IT firms in Bangalore, several civic organisations and prominent citizens of the City had been demanding relaxation of closure timings in keeping with the city’s growing prominence as a happening place.
Different stakeholders have demanded relaxation in timings for closure of bars and restaurants for all seven days in a week but the Government has decided to implement it only during weekends.
''Our intention to extend closure timings is to ensure availability of food to people who leave offices or factories late in the evenings,” he said.
It is an open secret that several city MLAs from the ruling party have been demanding relaxation of the timings and even petitioned Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to extend the deadline, especially if the State capital wanted the tag of being a global city.
A sum of Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned to Bangalore City Police to purchase vehicles and to ensure round the clock movement of police personnel, the Home Minister said.
The police have been told to take all steps to ensure law and order in the city.
The decision has been taken not under any pressure from the excise or business lobby, George clarified.
The minister said also made it clear that the decision was taken not to woo the yong voters during the forthcoming general elections.