It’s Cinderella time!

It’s Cinderella time!
What with the High Court endorsing Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari’s midnight deadline for all eateries, the city’s hotels and restaurants are keen to fall in line. Bangalore Mirror does a reality check
DEBI PRASAD SARANGI


The Karnataka High Court’s decision to uphold Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar M Bidari’s diktat requiring all food joints to shut down by midnight, is seeing errant hotels like the Empire, Paramount and Imperial falling in line.
Bidari had issued an order to close all food joints by midnight on May 19 and he described it as part of the measures being undertaken to check crime at night. However, some hotels that used to make lakhs of rupees in the night continued to defy the order. This came to the fore when South-East DCP BNS Reddy, who was on his night rounds on June 2, found several vehicles parked outside Paramount, Empire and Imperial in Koramangala at 1 am. Each of these hotels had closed their main door but continued to serve customers. The violation led to the arrest of the hotel managers following which the hotel owners approached the High Court.
In this backdrop, Bangalore Mirror decided to do a reality check on the implementation of the Commissioner’s order endorsed by the HC. Incidentally, hotels make anywhere from Rs 2 to 5 lakh on Saturday nights.
KORAMANGALA
We reached Empire and Paramount in Koramangala 5th Block at 12:05 am. These joints, which till recently had customers pouring in even at 2 am, started closing the doors even before the clock struck 12. In the presence of the police, the managements of these hotels even went to the extent of requesting people to finish their food at the earliest as they had to honour the deadline. “We don’t forcibly close the joints if we find them serving customers beyond midnight. We simply take video footage and report the matter to higher authorities. If they are found guilty of disobeying the rules twice, their licence is cancelled. We take extra precaution during weekends,” said a police official attached to the Koramangala police station.
RESIDENCY ROAD
We reached Residency Road at around 12:30 am. By that time, both Imperial and Paramount were closed. We found some police personnel on their night round. We tried to speak to some of the customers who were loitering around. According to them, the presence of the police was enough to make the hotels down their shutters.
CHURCH STREET AND
SHIVAJINAGAR
We reached the Empire outlet in Church Street, one of the most popular food joints in the city, at 12.45 am. Once again, the hotel was completely closed. Despite the deadline, we found some people hanging out there and the police were seen asking them to vacate the place. The entire stretch was completely deserted. It was unbelievable to see the once crowded stretch of Church Street totally empty by 12.45 am. We also witnessed the same situation when we reached Empire, Shivajinagar, at 12.55 am.
DESERTED ROADS
Though the deadline regarding the closure of hotels by midnight has led to a number of debates in the city, a section of people have also welcomed the move as they believe it will help the police in maintaining law and order. However, the deadline seems to be having a reverse impact on some places which used to remain busy till late in the night. The popular Church Street appears to have lost its charm. The street, which up until now was a favorite hangout for youngsters because of the presence of the Empire, was completely deserted by 12.40 am. Moreover, JNC Road, home to the Empire and Paramount in Koramangala was dark and desolate by 12.10 am. Describing the situation, Mayank Shekhar, an engineering student, says, “Forget about food beyond midnight. You cannot get even a pack of cigarettes as everything is closed. We used to come to Church Street and spend a couple of hours. But now, it’s useless to come to this place.”
A scuffle
A minor eve teasing incident led to a scuffle between some students from the north-east and some localites at Paramount, Residency Road, on Saturday night. According to some eyewitnesses, the staff of the hotel joined in the tamasha and started thrashing the students which left one of them badly injured. According to Raj Ahuja, a businessman and eyewitness, a group of students from northeast were having their dinner in Paramount hotel at around 11.30pm. One of the localities started teasing one of the girls from that group.“When some of her friends retaliated, the local youth started hitting them. During the course of the fight, one of the waiters of the hotel was mistakenly hit by one of the students. All of a sudden, the waiters and localities started beating up the north-east students. However, one of those students managed to call the cops, but the police reached the spot after 45 minutes,”Ahuja said.
Finally however,the police arrived at around 12.15 am and brought the situation under control.