Gurgaon Police has strictly told the pub owners in the city to close down before 12.30 am on New Years Day.

This is as per the general rules applicable in the city and there are no freedoms for the New Years.

As usual, pub owners are complaining that this would severely affect their business on the special occasion of New Years.

A restaurant owner spoke about the directive: “It is that time of the year when everyone comes out to party. It might be possible that owners might ‘manage’ their way even till 4 am. Hence the police should talk about something more practical and workable and give permission to operate at least till 2 am on new year. People have already started calling to find details about the price and timings and we fear when we tell them that we will not ‘entertain’ guests after 12.30 am, they will automatically chose a 24-hour club, affecting our business on the whole by at least 20-25 per cent if not more.”

Another individual stated: “We had a meeting with the local police a couple of days ago where we were asked to close by midnight. We are yet to receive a formal notice from the Excise Department, which has the authority to issue challans to defaulters. If the deadline is enforced it will affect our sales by 50 per cent. We will seek permission to operate till at least 2 am on New Year’s eve as guest start arriving only by 10 pm and it is unfair to ask them to leave in an hour or two.”