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Music mess: IT capital’s watering holes in trouble

A host of pubs in the IT capital have been on the receiving end as the city police has directed…

Music mess: IT capital’s watering holes in trouble

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A host of pubs in the IT capital have been on the receiving end as the city police has directed them to stop playing music in the wake of complaints from the residents of the localities housing them. The bigger problem, however, is the need to get an occupancy certificate which most of them lack.

A conservative estimate suggests that police action has already impacted about 100 odd pubs across the city with many preferring to run their watering holes without the music.

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Predictably, their business has taken a big hit, as senior police officials did admit that notices had already been sent to 30 pubs to fall in line or close down.

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The Karnataka High Court on 2 July, had ordered bars and pubs built post 1977 to obtain occupancy certificates, as a pre-condition for permission to play any type of music.

Even though the court gave the pubs a month’s time to comply,a few have chosen to shut their shops while others continue to run the show minus the music.

The problem does not seem to end here. Even those pubs which want to comply with the order find themselves in a fix as the rules require that the OCs should have been taken within five years of setting up an establishment, according to industry members.

A pub owner who did not want to be named claimed that in the seventies owners did not get any OCs because they did not need it. The industry also finds itself in a quandary as it is unable to understand the link between acquiring an OC and playing music.

A section of the bar owners have already decided to approach the courts for relief.

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