Excuse me, babe, are you old enough to be here?

Enjoy going to pubs? Great! But sorry if you are not yet twenty-one.College-goers and teens in the city who are eager to enjoy a drink and tap their feet on the dance floors of city pubs will have to wait until they are 21 years of age. Officials of the excise and prohibition department have warned the employees and management of pubs and other lounges in the city that strict action will be taken against them under section 36 of the Andhra Pradesh Excise Act if they allow youngsters below 21 years into the pubs or serve liquor to them.The officials have decided to implement the rule strictly after they cracked the whip on drug peddlers who allegedly operated their illegal business near select pubs and lounges and supplied drug samples to pub-goers. Excise and enforcement officials told Expresso that they have started raiding various pubs and lounges located at Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills and Begumpet. They have also arrested two staff members of well known pubs for allowing youth below twenty-one years inside. “We issued notices to all pub and lounge management asking them not to allow anyone below 21 years into pubs. Each pub management should take care to find out the age of a person through visible signs and if necessary, also verify it through the driving licence or other identity cards of the customer. The managements of the bars and pubs should properly display the age limit restriction at their entrances. If we catch minors inside any pub, we will intimate their respective parents and also conduct counselling for them,’’ the officials said. Meanwhile, a few prominent Page-3 party web portals like p3party.com based in New Delhi,  are encouraging minors to hit the pubs. Once you log into the portal, it asks if you are above 18 years of age. On clicking yes, it provides you with options of pubs in various cities including Hyderabad. When Expresso contacted Aayush Bansal, one of the directors of p3party.com, he said he was not aware of the recent ban on youth below 21 years at the pubs in the state . “We recently prepared the online data inviting pub-goers from Hyderabad. We will modify our portal information and invite only those who are 21 years and above,’’ he added. Varun, manager of Bottles and Chimneys, located at Begumpet said have not allowed minors into the pub or served them liquor after the excise and enforcement officials have imposed the ban. “We also regularly check the age of our customers before allowing them inside,” he told. 

By Mouli Mareedu