Bhubaneswar: Police have decided to intensify their crackdown on city bars that allegedly engage women.

On Saturday night, the cops conducted a surprise inspection of six bars to find out whether they had employed women. However, the police did not find any violations.

The police suspect that the bar owners were tipped off about Saturday's raids through CCTV cameras installed at their establishments. The police said Section 25 of the Odisha Excise Act, 2008, bars the employment of children or women by licensed vendors in an area in which liquor is consumed.

"We grant licence to bars only play music and host musical programmes," said a police officer.

Sources said that around 20 bars in the city, especially on Cuttack Road, engaged women as dancers. It has also been alleged that these women have to perform vulgar dance. "In the recent past, we found women engaged in bars to be involved in sex rackets. Some of the women entice customers while dancing in the bars," said another officer.

On the other hand, most women engaged in the bars said they were forced to take up the job for livelihood.

"It is better to dance in bars instead of getting involved in the flesh trade. We earn around Rs 20,000 a month to perform for around four hours daily in the bars," said a woman dancer.

In 2014, the excise department had served notices to six bars in the city after a surprise raid revealed that they employed women as dancers. The department had even found one of these bars engaged women to serve liquor.

Sources said despite there being no entry fee in these bars, they charged more compared to other bar-cum-restaurants in the city.

Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said they would inspect all the bars in the city to find if they had engaged women. "We have asked the special squad and the quick action team to collect information about bars engaging women," he said.

Action against cop

Director-general of Odisha police R.P. Sharma on Wednesday said actions would be initiated against inspector R.K. Patra, who manhandled a journalist at Capital Hospital on Sunday evening.

Sharma said he was waiting for the enquiry report of the deputy commissioner of police, Bhubaneswar. Earlier, the cops registered a case against Patra on the basis of a complaint filed by the journalist who was assaulted.