You may land in jail for six months if you touch the dancer at the bar
Touching a bar dancer will land you in jail for six months
After the Supreme court ruled out in favour of re-opening of dance bars in Maharashtra, it modified a few conditions laid down by the government.
Following this, the state government’s new dance bar draft law got stringent, which suggests imprisonment of six months and/or a penalty of Rs 50,000 on anyone touching bar dancers or throwing money at them.
Devendra Fadnavis, in a meeting held on Tuesday at Vidhan Bhavan, declared the crime to be a cognisable and non-bailable one.
A 25-member committee of all-party MLAs has been appointed to review the draft of the new legislation.
In the meeting, a few rules were discussed which will be converted into a bill and will be tabled in the House during the ongoing Budget Session for final approval. Once the bill is approved, it will be converted into an act and will be applicable across the state.
According to an official, installing CCTVs at the entrance of dance bars and on the dance floor will be mandatory. The owner will have to keep the CCTV footage for up to 30 days.
The draft has also suggested that if the bar owner or operator allows a bar dancer to be exploited, he will be penalised Rs 10 lakh or imprisoned for three years or both.
Further it states that the distance between the dance floor and the seating arrangement should be five feet and no person will be allowed to go at the dance floor.
Three women security guards be posted and women waiters and bar dancers be asked to stay on after 9.30 pm only with their consent, suggested the draft.
A few other proposals in the draft state that dance bars should be at least 1 km away from educational institutes or religious places, no dance bars in residential areas, prohibition on smoking and operating hours from just 6 pm to 11.30 pm.
