Chandigarh Administration on Wednesday rubbished media reports about enforcing ban to the entry of “scantily dressed” women in discos and pubs in the city.
Addressing a news conference, UT Home Secretary Anurag Agarwal accused the media of misquoting, mis-interpreting and distorting the facts related to the new policy “The Controlling of Places of Public Amusement, policy 2016”, which was introduced on the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“Nowhere in the policy, it has been mentioned that females can’t wear skirts, while going to the places defined under the policy, as stated in the media. We are not doing any moral policing and no such dress code has been prescribed in the policy framed by the Chandigarh Administration recently,” said Agarwal.
Hundreds of users on Twitter and Facebook had earlier in the day ridiculed the UT Administration and charged it with sexism after media reports that women in skirts won’t be allowed into discothèques in Chandigarh. The alleged ban on short skirts in Chandigarh discos had created a flutter on social media with 'Chandigarh' and 'skirt' being top trending topics on Twitter.
Taking note of a number of violent incidents reported outside discos in the city, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had recently asked the Chandigarh Administration to draft a policy for regulating the operations of restaurants, bars and discos.
The new policy, which has come into effect from April 1, has curtailed operational timings of bars. Bar owners will now have to shut shop by midnight instead of 2 am. UT Home Secretary said, “Controlling of Places of Public Amusement, policy 2016” has been carefully drafted by the Administration with a view to regulate the related businesses in Chandigarh. It aims at taking preventive steps timely for the convenience of citizens and to maintain law and order within the city, said he.
The only motive of framing this policy is to provide conducive atmosphere for the guests visiting such places and to avoid any unlawful activities or any untoward incident.