Once-quiet residential localities like Indiranagar and Koramangala have of late seen nightlife get busier with pubs and restaurants moving there from the more central areas of the city following the Supreme Court’s order on liquor vends near highways. But to the dismay of people in these localities, crime has seen a spurt with muggers and robbers targeting people, out on the street, and the police doing little to curb them. Mujahid Deputy, M.G. Chetan and Aknisree Karthik report.
With the state government’s zonal re-jig to allow commercial establishments in residential areas doing more harm than good, people have begun to protest the noise and crime they have to put up with.
BBMP officers admit the state government needs to take public opinion into consideration before allowing such commercialisation of their neighbourhoods. It also needs to beef up police presence in these localities to keep the hooligans and thugs out, they add.
The Supreme Court had banned the sale of alcohol within 500 metres from the national highways. At least 600 wine shops and bars were closed near M.G. Road, Brigade Road and along stretches in Indiranagar and Koramangala.
Age-old threat!! Naanu yaru gothilva!
A fast evolving mecca of foodies,12th main, Indiranagar, lined with several upmarket restaurants, boasts of an active nightlife, supported by Bengalureans from all around the city, who come here to enjoy its many attractions. But this rising foodies’ hub is seeing an increase in crime too with unidentified gangs targeting both men and women emerging from its restaurants late at night.
The gangs of four to six members reportedly strike at midnight, following men or women emerging from pubs and restaurants and attacking them when they are in a more isolated location.
For residents like Mr Sunil Patel, a chartered accountant, who lives on 12th main, the downside of its nightlife is of real concern. Says he, “Owners of residential buildings here have rented them out to pubs and restaurants after adding floors to them. So of late, the area around 12th main has seen a rise in crime, especially after midnight when gangs attack both men and women emerging from the pubs and restaurants.”
It’s getting increasingly unsafe in other parts of Indiranagar too as Vinny Bhatia, a resident of Double Road found recently. Walking back home at 12:30 am from a party in a well known restaurant on 100 ft road, she was followed by two helmet wearing men on a white scooter, who eventually snatched her bag and phone and sped away before she could raise an alarm.
And then more recently, there was the horrifying incident in the wee hours of Sunday on Indiranagar 13th main, in which three drunk men in a BMW attacked some youth in front of their house and threatened to gun them down.
Besides the rise in crime, the loud music and haphazard parking around the pubs and restaurants in the locality are also proving a huge nuisance for the people of Indiranagar. “The nightlife has become a headache for all of us here. With the pubs and restaurants remaining open till early morning in violation of the rules, and the ineffective police patrolling, our lives have become miserable. The restaurants and pubs have no open space and so drunk people gather on roads and near houses close- by, creating a huge nuisance,” complain many, who have little hope of things changing with the Supreme Court diktat driving watering holes of the city from around M G Road and other central areas to this upmarket locality in recent weeks.
