Kathmandu, October 25:

Owners of dance restaurants and bars in the Valley held the police responsible for increase in obscenity.

“No owner of the night dance restaurants and bars have dared to show naked dance without the nod from the respective police officers,” said Subash Palunga, spokesman for Nepal Night Business Entrepreneurs’ Association (NNBEA) today. “The higher-rank police officers used to demand wine and bribe on various occasions.”

Addressing a press conference organised here today, he said their demands fell on the dear ears of the government. “Though we presented the draft of code of conduct, the government has not responded yet,” he said. “This proves the intention of the government was not to regulate the night business.”

He said the association was against the nudity and irregularities in the night business and wanted to run their business in a decent manner.

Encountering the Home Minister’s allegation, NNBEA members claimed that not all the dance restaurants and bars were showing nude dances. “Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam has punished all the innocent and decent businessmen indiscriminately,” said Samir Gurung, NNBEA president. He said they have been demanding that the government let their businesses continue. “It’s the government’s duty to regulate and monitor the business. Closing down the business will never resolve the problem,” he said. We would now wage an “ideological battle” with the Home Minister, he said.

According to Gurung, Gautam’s move has affected many workers and pushed down the business by 80 per cent. Some 80,000 people have been directly or indirectly

involved in the night business.