Bar right in the middle of schools

HUBLI: Setting up a hotel with bar and restaurant just next to a school or a place of worship is illegal. But this may be an exception for those who can read between the lines of the rule book and take advantage of its loopholes.
The case in point is Ananth Executive, a new bar-and-restaurant hotel which is set for an opening on Friday. The hotel, which has come in place of old Woodlands Hotel, is ensconced between St Joseph's Church, St Mary's School, ,Fatima College and Sacred Heart Convent.Worse, they are all within 100-metre radius of the hotel, while Sacred Heart Convent, an all-girl school, shares a common compound wall with it.
But for the hotel management and the bureaucracy, it is not close to institutions and a place of worship. Dharwad excise superintendent B R Hiremath said according to law, no bar and restaurant should come up within a 50-metre radius of an educational institution or a place of worship in corporation limits. The hotel in question is 72 metre away.
About the hotel sharing a common compound wall with the girls' convent, he said excise department measures the distance only between the two entrances. According to the norm, the entrance of the hotel should be located not within 50 metre of that of the school/ college. The distance between the two premises or the buildings is not taken into consideration. Perhaps to meet the norms, the hotel has placed its main gate on the extreme right of its front side.
Stating that there is nothing wrong in granting permission to the hotel, Hiremath said it is "a class hotel which only attracts sophisticated people". "Such hotels only sell 8-10 boxes of liquor. People who come there prefer to have a 60 ml or 90 ml drink. It's not a place for commoners," he said, justifying the location of the hotel.
Fr Allam Fleeva Reddy, principal of Fatima College, said the hotel will definitely spoil the atmosphere of the institutions. He said they are planning to take up the issue with Belgaum Diocese, which manages the institution.
Ananth Executive MD Ramesh Shetty said: "We have not violated the norms and everything was checked properly."