Unholy Nexus

Unholy Nexus
Author: Chetan R Date: 17 Jun 2008

Police force all restaurants in the city to shut by 11.30 pm, but Hotel Empire does brisk business till 3 am, with full protection from the law keepers. The restaurant, the police, and the BBMP are hand-in-glove, but everyone is putting on an air of innocence



‘That’s not true’
NO RULES APPLY HERE: Every night, parked vehicles block Central Street, which connects the rest of Bangalore to Shivajinagar pic/Satish Badiger

Police force all restaurants in the city to shut by 11.30 pm, but Hotel Empire does brisk business till 3 am, with full protection from the law keepers.

The police also block off an arterial road in Shivajinagar to help customers of the restaurant park their vehicles after 11 pm.

Hotel Empire has three branches in Bangalore, and the ones on Central Street and Church Street are routinely open through the night.

Clearly, an unholy nexus exists between the restaurant, the police, and the BBMP, but everyone is putting on an air of innocence.

How is the restaurant getting away with such audacious violations of the law? How do they thrive while their competitors are harassed into driving their customers away and downing shutters as the clock approaches the deadline? How can they turn a public road into an exclusive parking area for their customers?

“No restaurant is allowed to operate beyond 11 pm. We have not permitted any restaurant to do business after that hour except for those in the vicinity of bus stands and railway stations,” said Dr Subramanya, BBMP commissioner.

Hotel Empire says it has obtained “special permission”.

“The health officer has given us permission to operate till 3 am,” said Rashid, manager of the Shivajinagar branch of Hotel Empire.

The BBMP commissioner is, at least for the record, shocked by this claim. “That’s not true. We have not given any special permission to any Hotel Empire. If they are doing business beyond the specified hour, it’s wrong,” said Dr Subramanya.

The police may shut down other restaurants at 11.30 pm, but pass the buck when it comes to Hotel Empire.

Additional commissioner (law and order) Bipin Gopalkrishna said, “We enforce excise laws restricting the sale of liquor beyond 11.30 pm. But closing eateries doesn’t come under our purview, and we haven’t issued any order to that effect.”

Appallingly, Central Street, which connects the rest of Bangalore to Shivajinagar, is blocked from 11 pm to 3 am every day.

“The road gets converted into a parking lot, which is wrong. We are helpless as BBMP officials allow these hotels to do business, and the law and order police put up barricades for their benefit,” said a traffic sub-inspector in Shivajinagar.

Bipin Gopalkrishna had a different take. “Since Hotel Empire runs its business beyond 11.30 pm citing some special permission, we block the road leading up to the restaurant,” he said.

No one’s looking?

Infrastructure experts are stunned such violations can happen with help from the police.

“Roads should not be blocked. Closing a road for a restaurant’s benefit is not right,” said Capt Raja Rao, chairman, BBMP committee on roads.

Road users are unhappy too. “As this street is blocked, we have to travel an extra distance to enter Shivajinagar. Roads are meant for public use,” said Zameer, who travels through Central Street every day.

We don’t know!

Hotel Empire is open till 3 am, but incredibly, the Karnataka Hotels and Restaurants Association says it has not noticed the violation.

“Restaurants must be allowed to operate through the night in the neighbourhoods where IT-BT companies operate. But everybody must abide by the law,” said Mahadevaiah, its president.

Hotel Empire’s competitors have tried getting permission from the BBMP, but have been turned away.

“We had approached them, but they said we should close by 11.30 pm. We don’t know what permission Empire has,” said Ramesh, manager of Bhima’s, an Andhra-style restaurant on Church Street.

Lawyer Ahmed Khan filed a public interest case three weeks ago, seeking to know if Empire Hotel had any permission to operate beyond 11.30 pm.

Open violations

Section 288(a) of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act says roads and footpaths cannot be used for any purpose other than what they are meant for without the permission of the commissioner. BBMP commissioner S Subramanya says he hasn’t allowed Hotel Empire to block Central Street for parking, or even to do business beyond 11.30 pm.

Blocking a road amounts to encroachment, according to the law.

The city police have issued an order that lays down that restaurants serving liquor should not be open beyond 11.30 pm, but pressure all restaurants, even those not serving liquor, to close by that deadline.

The excise department and the BBMP, besides the police, are expected to enforce the order, but they merrily blame one another when confronted with uncomfortable questions.