Renkacharya unhappy over new police guidelines for bars, pubs

Days after the City Police issued the new set of guidelines, Karnataka Excise Minister M P Renkacharya said the Excise department had its own rules to regulate those granted license to sell liquor.

"They (rules) are adequate to regulate them," he said."I will not tolerate any interference in the working of my department. Nobody has authority to curb powers vested with the Excise Department," he told reporters apparently peeved over the July 27 guidelines issued by Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari.

The guidelines prescribed a long list of dos and dont's, besides uniform to women bartenders which the city police chief said was necessitated by complaints about women employees of bars indulging in "obscene" acts.

"Issues of morality and decency could be addressed under existing Excise laws. We are filing our comments on the draft rules," Excise Commissioner Aravind Jannu said.
Jannu sought to play down the draft guidelines, saying "they are all inter-departmental issues. We will sort them out."

Renukacharya said he would discuss the issue with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and state Home Department officials.

"We will ensure that no trouble is caused to licence holders. My department has contributed Rs 7,200 crore revenue this year and targets to scale it up to Rs 8,500 crore next year," the minister said.

Renukacharya, a dissident-turned-Yeddyurappa loyalist, pledged his loyalty to the chief minister. "We are with the Chief Minister. Our Chief Minister is not weak."
The excise minister had recently favoured extending the timing of bars upto 2 am in the country's IT capital but was promptly shot down by state Home department citing law and order issues.

The police guidelines directed bars to furnish list and details of women employees to licensing authority, and stipulated the women head-count will not be more than one- fourth of the number of seats available for customers.

Bars have also been directed to inform the licencing authority whenever any woman employee quits.

Similarly, particulars of new women employees should be furnished at least 10 days prior to the joining.