Dance bars in check

Police to allow dance bars to open only if they agree to comply with the new rules

MUMBAI: In a last-ditch attempt to curb dance bars from cropping up again in the city, the police have prepared a list of 25 stringent conditions for them to adhere to. Violating them will lead to immediate suspension of their licence.

Officials said they have received 90 applications to date, with most of them being new players in the trade. The police will, however, process the application only after the candidate gives a ‘self-certification’ of complying with the conditions.

Following the apex court’s green light to dance bars, the state government had reiterated its intention to not allow them.

Hence, the conditions have been envisaged in order to tone down their style of functioning to that of a ‘dance performance’.

Paving the way for digital coverage of the activities inside dance bars, the police will now make it compulsory to put up CCTV cameras covering the whole premises — the number of cameras will not be specified.

The dance floor, which will be elevated, will be specifically covered and only four dancers will be allowed to perform at any given point of time.

The dance floor will be surrounded by a three feet fencing and it will be segregated from

the customers’ seating by a ‘red border’ located at a distance of five feet.

“We will not view footage that the CCTV cameras will capture. However, they will need storage with a digital video recorder (DVR) of a month’s capacity. We

will take the footage from them for general inspection occasionally,” said a senior police officer.

Among other conditions, showering of currency notes on the dancers will be prohibited and in case the norm is violated, the owner will face action.

The word obscenity is also mentioned in the draft. However, as there is no specific definition to it, the police may have an upper hand on deciding if the dance bars are indulging in it.

“The conditions are cleared and we [control rooms] will have the provision to access the footage anytime. The police will not monitor the footage around the clock,” said Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police, law and order.