The Jodhpur Park bar reflected in the car mirror and the school nearby. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A bar-cum-restaurant has been functioning in Jodhpur Park, within a few feet of two schools, since 2003. The local residents and the schools allege violation of law and want Tandoor Park to be closed or relocated, but the government is pleading helplessness in acting on the demand.

An excise department official claimed that there had been no irregularity in granting a licence to the eatery and that the government could, at best, ask the management to serve liquor after school hours.

The West Bengal Excise Rules, 1993, amended in 2003, state: ?No licence for the retail sale of liquor... at a new site shall be granted where it is situated in the vicinity of an educational institution? For the purpose of this rule, vicinity means a distance of 300 ft.?

The rule was further amended in 2004, extending the scope of vicinity to mean a distance of 1,000 ft.

Tandoor Park, however, is located within 150 ft of Jodhpur Park Girls? High School and 65 feet of The Modern Academy.

Citing the excise rules, Modern Academy principal Ratna Sinha has written to excise superintendent Sulachna Chatterjee and excise commissioner Taldeen Kunan: ?The existence of a bar-cum-restaurant that remains open throughout the day may influence growing students in their tender age in an undesirable manner and inculcate wrong values in them.?

The managing committee of the state-sponsored Jodhpur Park Girls? High School discussed the issue on March 25 and adopted a resolution urging the government to look into the matter.

The resolution, forwarded to the collector of excise (south) by headmistress Sreeradha Bose, reads: ?The managing committee resolved that Tandoor Park has a bad social effect? and the matter should be taken up by the appropriate authority.?

Senior officials of the excise department, however, reason that Tandoor Park had a valid licence, issued after a thorough inquiry.

The licence was issued on January 19, 2003, before the excise rules were amended. ?The inspector who probed the matter had to interpret the word ?vicinity? on his own, as no guideline was set out at that time,? said an official.

?It is difficult for us to withdraw a liquor licence as the government sets specific revenue targets for us. If the schools want, we can consider asking the bar-owners to serve liquor after school hours,? he added.

The social welfare organisation Diganta has vowed to move court if the authorities fail to take action against the bar.

Tandoor Park proprietor Kumkum Chatterjee could not be reached.