Maharashtra home minister R. R. Patil is man with a mission - to close all dance bars and disco’s in the state yet the ‘evil’ flourishes near his home district in Kolhapur.
It is an unusual sight, a dance bar on the highway connecting Kolhapur to Bagaluru. It is strategically located on the boundary of Sangli and Kolhapur district. While Sangli is the constituency of Mr. RR Patil the home minister, Kolhapur is the constituency of Satej Patil, Minister of state for home. R. R. Patil’s has been cracking down on similar dens of vice all over the state.
The Goan is in possession of snapshots of dance bar where bar girls are seen dancing half naked. 10-12 girls serve liquor to the customers and dance with them. There are also 20-25 bouncers placed around the dancing club. A lay man cannot enter the bar unless he satisfies the queries of the bouncer at the entrance. “You will find that everything in this bar is double the rate” one of the customer said.
It is common knowledge that customer have been known to spend their entire salary, withdraw from their provident fund sell jewelry and in some cases even sell agricultural land to spend money on these girls.
The ‘Highway In’ dance bar is located near the MIDC and laborers are known to spend all their income in this bar. “It is a very serious issue concerning the working class ” said Samir Nadaf working president of Kolhapur Janshakti. He said that the bar should be shut down for the betterment of the people.
Raju Jadhav, MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) Kolhapur city chief told this newspaper that his party would shut it down if the authorities failed to do the same. “I am not threatening the authorities but I will clean up the town ” Jadhav said. He alleged that a few of the dance bars had been established with the help of the local police. However Vijaysing Jadhav district Superintendent of Police (SP) refused to acknowledge the presence of such bars in the Kolhapur district. “If we are provided with proof we will definitely initiate action against it” Jadhav said.
