Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

`Harassment' fare for Krishna Rao

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD May 16. The Twin Cities Bar and Restaurants and Wine Merchants Association has appealed to the Police Commissioner, M.V. Krishna Rao, to put an end to the police harassment against its members in the wake of the 11 p.m. deadline.

``While excise rules stipulate our business hours as 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., our trauma begins at 10.30 p.m. everyday as cops arrive in hordes and drive away customers and even workers and owners of the eatery,'' the association president, D. Venkateshwar Rao, said here on Friday. A delegation of the association met the Commissioner today and urged him to ensure that they be allowed to run their businesses till the stipulated 11 p.m. "If the police find us serving liquor after the stipulated time they can initiate action against us,'' the association members argued.

A spill-over time of 30 minutes was required to clear off the day's transactions, they said. The members said they were suffering losses on account of the `forced early closure' of their businesses. "While we are paying three to four times higher liquor licence fee when compared to other States we are not being allowed to do business even during the official timings fixed by the Excise Department,'' they pointed out. "Our peak business hours are from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. and for most part of the day there is hardly any activity,'' Mr. Rao said.

The members said that for example, bars and restaurants in Mumbai and Pune get closed at 1.30 a.m., Kolkata and Chennai at midnight and Bangalore 11.30 p.m. with a lead time of 30 minutes. "The licence fee in all these places on an average is about Rs. 4 lakhs while we shell out Rs. 13-14 lakhs per annum,'' they maintained. Mr. Rao added the Commissioner had assured them that he would review the situation.

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