E-Paper
No takers for 24x7 licence from hotel industry as Pune not ready to ‘party all night’
Aiming to give the restaurant and tourism industry a push, the state government in December 2017 had amended the Act to increase job opportunities without causing any inconvenience to residents. The notification covers hotels, restaurants and malls, but excludes bars, pubs, wine shops and discotheques which currently have restricted timings.
Pune Not a single restaurant in the city has applied for the licence to operate 24×7 after more than six months since the Maharashtra government amended the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Service Condition) Act, 2017 and issued a notification allowing shops and hotels to be kept open 24 hours.
Aiming to give the restaurant and tourism industry a push, the state government in December 2017 had amended the Act to increase job opportunities without causing any inconvenience to residents. The notification covers hotels, restaurants and malls, but excludes bars, pubs, wine shops and discotheques which currently have restricted timings.
According to the amendment, restaurants are allowed to stay open 24×7 at a place where there is machinery of maintaining security and traffic. However, the Pune shop and establishment registration department office has not received any application in the last six months.
Nikhil Walke, assistant labour commissioner (shops and establishment) Pune, said, “The state government has amended the existing law by keeping the benefit of hotel industry in mind. However, as far as the Pune region is concerned, not a single restaurant owner has applied for permission to run business 24×7. Most of the restaurants in the city are running till 11:30 pm, while some remain open till 1:30 am. The restaurants staying open till 1:30 am do not find it financially viable to extend it by three more hours and spend more on workers when customers are generally not expected.”
Ganesh Shetty, president of Pune restaurants and hoteliers association (Praha), said, “Restaurants to remain open 24×7 is not economically feasible as many excess overheads will be involved, including electricity and workforce and we cannot predict the business. Some restaurant owners have also cited security reasons and we have conducted a meeting on the issue and working on a solution. We can close our restaurants by midnight and extend it by 1.30 am on weekend. After 1.30 am, we cannot expect any business.”
Sahebrao Patil, additional commissioner of police, said, “The response from restaurants to stay open 24×7 is poor. The permission to run restaurant 24×7 has been given at the zonal level. Many owners hesitate to apply for it on security grounds.”
According to the shop and establishment registration department, restaurant owners have to apply to the commissionerate for permission to stay restaurant open 24×7. After that, the commissionerate demands a detailed report from the respective labour commissioner office seeking a field visit of labour inspector to check the security measures taken by the owner. The owner can open the restaurant 24×7 after getting the clearance report from labour commissioner office.
BOX
According to the amendment, restaurants are allowed to stay open 24x7 at a place where there is machinery of maintaining security, traffic. However, the Pune shop and establishment registration department said that not a single restaurant owner has applied for permission to run 24x7 in the last six months.
