Pune, June 26 (PTI) Maharashtra cabinet minister Chandrakant Patil on Wednesday suggested closure of pubs and bars in the city for about a week and said citizens should come on one platform during this period to chalk out rules for these establishments.
He was responding to questions about the Pune bar case on the sidelines of an event organised to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, observed every year on June 26.
Pubs and bars in the state’s second-largest city came under the spotlight after a viral video, allegedly from Liquid Leisure Lounge or L3 on the Fergusson College Road, showed some youths with a drug-like substance.
Police said the bar was operating till 5 am on Sunday and liquor was being sold beyond the permissible time limit. Bars and pubs in Pune are allowed to remain open till 1.30 am.
Drug menace in Pune has increased and has become worrisome but it won’t be appropriate to portray an image that the entire city is ruined due to it, said Patil.
The administration should take strict measures as a preemptive step to curb this challenge and not after some incident, the BJP leader said.
If a vigilance team is being set up against such menace, citizens should also be inducted into it, he said.
“All Punekars should think of keeping the pubs and bars (in the city) closed for at least three days or seven days and everybody should come together on one platform and chalk out rules for the timings of these establishments,” Patil suggested.
He said “clear dry days” for seven days should be observed and a rule book should be made besides putting in efforts towards its effective implementation.
“These establishments are not grocery shops so keep them closed for seven days,” he said.
Patil said his department of higher and technical education is exploring if an additional counsellor’s post can be created in every college to provide “right guidance” to students.
The assembly session of the Maharashtra legislature will start in Mumbai (on June 27) and this “hot” issue will be discussed there, he said.
Police have so far arrested 16 persons in connection with the suspected drug use at L3.
In the early hours of May 19, two software professionals lost their lives after a Porsche car allegedly driven by a 17-year-old minor in an inebriated state hit their two-wheeler in the city’s Kalyani Nagar area, according to the police. The teenager had allegedly consumed alcohol in two bars shortly before the accident, they claimed. PTI SPK NR
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