The City has been crying hoarse for extending the night life and petitioning the authorities concerned to go easy. But guess who is calling the shots regarding the Cinderella hour - the 11.30pm deadline for the watering holes in the City?
The police inspectors in the city have reportedly been opposing the move to extend the deadline on the pretext that their workload would increase manifold and they would not be able to get back home till early morning. City police commissioner Jyothiprakash Mirji told this newspaper that while he is in favour of “reasonably” extending the deadline, his inspectors have been resisting the move. “Each time I have tried to reason with them to extend the night life by 30 minutes to an hour, they have told me that it would add to their workload and none of them would be able to go home at night. Not only inspectors, even assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners of police also requested me to stick to the present deadline”, he said.
“Police patrolling around 11.30 pm is intense to prevent drunken driving and road accidents. The exercise is strenuous and time-consuming. If we extend it further it would affect the personnel,” said Mr Mirji. He, however, added that he is still open to the idea of extending the nightlife.