Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 24 Oct: As the autumn season draws to its halfway mark, festivities are in the air, and there are parties all night – be it open-air events at festival grounds, at gigs, or in bars, restaurants, and nightclubs – especially in and around the Itanagar Capital Region.
Some of the open-air events and festivals often run beyond the regulated midnight timing, which is 12 am.
“Normally 10 pm is the time limit, and on exceptional cases up to 12 midnight,” said ICR Deputy Commissioner Toko Babu.
It is evident that the district administration is deliberately ignoring its own prohibitory order, letting the events and music festivals go on without a cap on timing.
Though there is no single national law uniformly restricting events, festivals, and night clubs (bars/pubs/discos) from operating after 12 am, these are governed by state-specific excise policies (for alcohol-serving establishments like bars and clubs),and local prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Normally, for bars and night clubs, the timing is typically tied to excise licences, with many states mandating shutdown by 12 am to curb drunk driving and noise.
For events and festivals, the general noise pollution rules under the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 prohibit loud sounds after 10pm in residential areas, but festivals often get temporary relaxations till midnight or later, via special orders.
Meanwhile, the event managers have their own side of the story. Wish and Keys Gigs chairman Potu Dada, who managed the musical event of Bollywood playback singers and music directors Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani at Indira Gandhi Park in Itanagar on 19 October, said that there are some factors and compulsions that force some programmesto not be able to run within the official timing.
“The underestimation of setup and rehearsal time, delay in artists’ arrival, late audience entry, last-minute technical glitches, uncontrolled stage engagement, and anchor fillers are the factors which stretches the scheduled timing unintentionally,” said Dada.
Dada added that, despite all these factors, his event exceeded the official timing by only half-hour due to unavoidable circumstances.
Similarly, as per restro-bar owners, the official timing and night life in the twin cities starts at around 10:30 or 11 pm.
“We hardly have one hour of business if the official closing time is considered, whereas there are many unlicenced cafes, roadside restaurants, and small vendors selling alcohol illegally, irrespective of age group, which has a major hold on customers,” said a bar owner on condition of anonymity.
“The rules and regulations are only implemented for the legal bars; they are not even counted when police patrol. We generate revenues for the state government. We have authorized licence. However,the major chunk of customers and their money is flowing into the roadside category. I suspect that they don’t even pay taxes,” he added, venting his frustration.
