MUMBAI: A major crackdown is expected on the dance bars, which are running illegally in Mumbai and the adjoining Thane district and satellite township of Mumbai. Dance bars were banned from August 14-15, 2005 midnight across Maharashtra – but several of them do operate in Mumbai and its suburbs.

Maharashtra home minister R R Patil on Friday assured the Vidhan Sabha that if he comes across incidents or complaints of dance bars being operational, he would take action against the Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs).

Patil's statement came while replying to a supplementary by Pravin Darekar (MNS) during the Question Hour in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Darekar complained that despite the ban, dance bars thrive in the western suburbs of Mumbai creating law and order problems with locals facing lot of problems. "If Darekar gives me details, I will suspend the DCPs /SPs of the concerned areas," Patil said.

Patil, as home minister, in 2005 was instrumental in banning the dance bars. However, there has been several instances of dance bars being operational, though clandestinely. Following the ban, the Bharatiya Bargirls Union and Fight for Rights of Bar Owners' Association has moved the Bombay High Court, which lifted the ban, but allowed the Maharashtra government to move Supreme Court. The SC has admitted the appeal of the state. The ban, however, remains in force.

While some of these work in the dance bars, which operate clandestinely and take in only selected patrons, some girls on the other hand – have been quick in hunting other jobs since the dance bar ban. The situation has changed since then as several of the nearly a lakh-odd dancers had been rendered jobless, some of them has taken to mujras, some are now working as waitresses in orchestra-bars, some have moved to the Gulf and some have taken to prostitution.

In 1986, there were only 24 dance bars in the city. Within a year the number reached to 32. Within a decade the number went up to 206 and by 2005 the number rocketed to 1250. And, finally came the ban in 2005.

When contacted a senior police officer said: "It is true that dance bars has been banned, it is also true that some of them still run, particularly in Mumbai suburbs. How are these dance bars running despite the ban?"