Crime and late night clubbing go hand-in-hand, believes the West Bengal government. Which explains its new directive: that is, at the stroke of midnight, Kolkata’s pubs and nightclubs have to call it a day. Prior to the new deadline, pubs could remain open till two in the morning on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The government’s order is aimed at curbing crime in the city.
According to the new guideline issued by the excise department, last orders at pubs and nightclubs must be at 11.30 pm; operations must wrap up by 11.45 pm; and the lobby must be cleared by midnight. The revised guideline follows the Park Street incident where a woman was raped at gunpoint in a moving car around 2 am. The victim was openly criticised by the state government for being adventurous and venturing out alone in the night. Instead of ensuring security for the citizens, the authorities have decided to cut the timings of nightclubs.
The move has not gone down well with patrons and pub owners. “We have witnessed an average 50 per cent decline in footfalls since the midnight guideline was enforced,” says a spokesperson for Apeejay Surendra Group’s The Park, Kolkata. The hotel’s popular nightclubs Roxy, Aqua, Someplace Else and Tantra see 350-400 visitors on weekdays. On weekends, the number touches 1,000.
Authorities, however, maintain that the deadline has not affected the bars. “We still have a lot of music buffs,
IT clientele, international guests as well as people from various creative fields like art, music and culture who frequent our bars,” says an official.
The Underground pub of Hotel Hindustan International has reportedly witnessed a 70 per cent loss of business after the midnight deadline. When Business Standard visited this pub close to midnight, there was only one customer, a rare sight in this popular late-night hangout. “We are conforming to the new guidelines, but it is adversely affecting our business as the working crowd is keeping away,” says Subhashish, Underground’s manager.
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The midnight guideline was already in force for city restaurants, where the last orders were taken at 11.45 pm. Thereafter, people would frequent the dhabas, which remain open into the wee hours. Business Standard visited two of the city’s prominent dhabas after midnight and found that it was business as usual. Both these dhabas had a licence to stay open until 1 am, but both had managed to find ways of doing business well beyond this deadline.
The cab business has been another casualty of the directive. City cabs, which would otherwise queue up to ferry homebound passengers from nightclubs at double or triple the legal fare till dawn, have suddenly gone missing after midnight. With club-hopping down, business too has plunged for cab drivers.
Musician and Hip Pockets band member Nandan Bagchi is of the opinion that such a guideline will seriously harm the positive and unique culture of the city. “In the 45 years of my career playing music at pubs in Park Street, I have rarely come across mishaps. Such a deadline to curb crime would instead harm the music culture among the youth,” he says, adding that many of the music buffs who come to listen to him are bureaucrats, policemen and politicians. Bagchi is apprehensive that a loss of business might compel hotel owners to convert their pubs into boutiques or banquet halls. He fears that this might kill the opportunity for young musicians to display their talent, given that many of the city’s pubs serve as launching pads for them.
Neetu Singh, a former Kolkata resident who now lives in London, says, “The pubs in London are open all night long and minor scuffles are not rare. Yet people throng these places fearlessly after a hard day at work.” The new order is perhaps not the best start to the West Bengal Chief Minister’s bid to turn Kolkata into London.