Srinagar, May 23: Shouting and hooting, a group of youth make merry outside a snooker-n-pool parlour in plush Raj Bagh –prompting some of the inhabitants to peep out of their windows. The youth are enjoying the win of a thousand rupees “bet on the snooker table”.
 Dressed in typical Bollywood styles, like the Tum Tum Saif Ali Khan, they puff cigarettes planning on how to spend the “booty”.
 “Let’s get some Tandoori Chicken, and beer from Boulevard shop,” suggests one of them. The proposal gets a nod and within half-an-hour the group returns in a sedan driven by one of them.
 They park the cab next to the pool point at a shady place till the boozing ends. The empty cans and bones are thrown behind bushes. And the boys return to the parlour to try their luck one more time.
 The gaming house, a single storeyed building, where visitors have to jot their identification details for entry, charges Rs 150 for an hour of snooker and Rs 100   for the pool.
 “Sorry we don’t teach the game. But you can start it by directly playing if you pay the hourly fee,” replied a man at the fee counter to this scribe who pretended to be a gaming aspirant.
 All the four big and small tables are busy while some music is being played.
 But, a graffiti looks conspicuous. “CCTVs are watching you,” reads a notice pasted on the wall.
 Why so? “There have been many cases of duels and thefts inside the hall. Even the balls were stolen. So to keep an eye on the players the cameras are working,” explained a player.
 Meanwhile a ball dips. “Good shot man!,” hails a player.  “The expertise didn’t come without hard work, I have been bunking my school for this,” responds the shooter to his colleagues.
 Outside the pool point, two visibly upset youth are seen sitting close to bushes. One can see some empty Corex bottles lying nearby.
 The locals term the place as “boozing spot.”
 “One often finds these youth consuming Corex or liquor here,” complained a local adding that “once posh, Raj Bagh has turned into a hub of immoral activities in the garb of these billiards shops.”
 “I think Raj Bagh isn’t now a place worth living,” said a local arguing that how come authorities allow such business be run in residential areas.
 But then Raj Bagh isn’t the only area where presence of these gaming parlours has irked the locals.
 People of others areas like Barzulla, Baghat, Karan Nagar and Sanat Nagar too are all fire.
 Take the case of Baghat Barzulla. A snooker point there had turned so infamous that the locals kept agitating against the parlour till it got closed.
 “The place had become a hub of drug trafficking,” said a local.
 But with authorities failing to keep a check on such business, the gaming parlours continue to operate in the residential areas. Take the case of Baghat, Barzulla parlour. Even though the gaming point got closed, another one has popped up in adjacent Parray Pora, a hub of coaching centres.
 The Parray Pora locals complained that many boys bunk off their coaching classes to spent time at the snooker parlour.
 As about Raj Bagh, one of the pool owners volunteered to shutdown his parlour on “moral grounds” some time back.  But others like the one close to a prominent girls school continues to operate. The parlour youth are also accused of eve-teasing the schoolgirls!

‘ADMIN TO PROBE MUSHROOMING, ILLEGAL SHOTS’
Senior officials in the district administration said the pool, snooker points are running in residential areas without requisite license.
“Basically commercial activities (including such gaming parlours) aren’t allowed in residential areas but such organizations have popped in the past two decades of turmoil, particularly in areas like Raj Bagh, Jawahir Nagar and Karan Nagar,” said a senior official.
He said the issue of their licensing needs to be looked into and streamlined.
When contacted the District Development Commissioner, Meraj Ahmed Kakroo said the complaints about the pool, snooker points would have probed.
“One will have to look into it, take some measures and see how best we can act,” Kakroo told Greater Kashmir adding people should bring such complaints to the notice of the authorities.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:00 IST