MUMBAI
Though dance bar owners are gearing up to regain lost licences in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict, it is not easy to get a licence in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Not just for a dance bar, even for a permit room, more than 40 licences are needed; depending on the size of the establishment, this number can go up to 80.
These licences have to be acquired from different authorities: the civic body, the state government, the Centre, the Pollution Control Board etc. Industry insiders say this encourages corruption and are demanding a single-window clearance so that processes are swift and the scope for graft minimal.
Shashikant Shetty, general secretary of AHAR, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said, “We doubt if oil refineries or nuclear power plants require so many licences. They result in legalised extortion and corrupt practices.”
Full report here Times of India
