'Permit Raj' irks city drinkers

Imagine being stopped at the entrance of a bar or pub and being asked to pay up Rs 5. "Whatever, for?" you will surely ask. To which the bouncer, or whoever it is that's manning this duty, will respond a touch matter of factly, "Drinking permit." Once you're done being confused and/or surprised, you will fish out the change-which , we were informed earlier this week, is scarce-you will be given a receipt, which you will absentmindedly pocket, and head for your table.
In Maharashtra - the central government allows each state to decide its own liquor policies - selling alcohol to individuals without a permit is illegal. Interested individuals can procure these permits at the excise department; a lifetime permit for Rs 1,000 and a year's permit for Rs 300.
Last year, a new strain of the permit virus was released into the state's drinking culture and this allowed individuals to pick up quick one-day permits for Rs 5. Thus far, this law was infrequently implemented . Be that as it may, it looks like things are about to change, or at least become even more ad hoc than they were.
While WTF, a popular and easy-going pub chain in the suburbs, makes it necessary for you to buy a day permit before you enter, the plush Trilogy , housed in Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu, gives its patrons a permit at the entrance but does not charge them, choosing instead to foot the costs. The perennially popular and much-graffitied Ghetto is a touch utopian and prefers to believe that its regulars already own permits and finally , the extra casual Jughead's - The Unrestaurant, Khar, and the extra pricey Prive, Colaba, might be poles apart in temperament but are alike when it comes to permits; they keep a bunch on them and are happy to give them out if need be.
Ritik Bhasin, partner at Liv Club, Kala Ghoda, explains, "Of course we're not going to charge people Rs 5, so the club ends up footing the cost. On an average, every week, we pay Rs 8,000 for day permits."
C Panda, a media professional , irate at the mere suggestion of a permit, said, "All these idiotic restrictions are tokenisms that rarely get implemented . Besides, they are a Prohibition era thing. This drinking permit is a complete scam whereby the government has devised yet another strategy to make a quick buck off the civilians . Why should I pay Rs 5 when everything shuts down at 1.30am? Not for nothing is India known as Permit Raj."
Phalguni Desai, a 20-something who likes to go out drinking but can't afford it anymore, vents, "I don't think any other nation wastes as much time thinking about drinking as we do. In India, we have decided drinking is an excess and will result in calamitous behaviour, which is just plain silly.
"Nobody I have ever gone out with drinking has displayed a sociopathic personality as a result of drinking. Instead of figuring out drinking permits, the law would be better off curbing the rising number of rape cases."

Red tape comes in different forms in Mumbai but the permit to drink must be the most ridiculous of them. That a government can insist on a permit to drink is absurd. Most bar owners and patrons say it's just one more stupid law that leaves them exposed to blackmail by lawenforcers . The sooner the government abolishes this relic from another age, the better it would be for the average Mumbaikar. There must be better ways to earn revenue and maintain order in Mumbai than asking tipplers to buy a piece of paper that permits them to drink. The government needs to focus on issues of governance and an individual drinking is surely not one of them.