Pub goers to be under Excise teams’ watchful gaze

Owners instructed to blanket cover their establishments with cameras

In a few days, all the movements of people partying at pubs in and around Hyderabad could be viewed by Telangana Prohibition and Excise officials too. The pubs owners were instructed to blanket cover their establishments with cameras, including all blind spots, and give access to the cameras to the Excise teams too. Cameras are already installed in most of the pubs, whose footage is stored for 30-45 days.

The instructions were issued by the State Prohibition and Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud at a meeting held with the owners, in Hyderabad on Saturday. All of them congregated exactly a week after the Hyderabad Police Task Force found cocaine at a pub in Banjara Hills.

In the backdrop of the drug seizure at the pub in Banjara Hills, Mr Srinivas said that some ‘pests’ who are greedy for money are tainting the name of the State, and have asked people who are indulging in illegal activities to leave the city, country, and not to be seen.

He has warned of dire consequences such as shutting down all the establishments by issuing a Government Order (GO). “Money is not important for us,” he said.

Excise department Commissioner Sarfaraz Ahmed said that their teams will not intervene in daily activities of the pubs, but that they will be ruthless when it comes to issue of drugs. He has asked them to think how well business will fare if a restaurant or star hotel does not have bar licence.

The pub owners detailed the steps that are being taken to curb drugs in their establishments such as not allowing cigarettes boxes whose seal has been opened, frisking at the entrance, checking bags, they keep moving in the bar to know if anyone is consuming drugs.