Why Himalaya mall imposed entry fee last week-end? Perhaps the answer lies in August 2012

August 12, 2013


By Rupang Bhatt, Ahmedabad, 12 August 2013

Why Ahmedabad’s Himalaya mall had to impose reimbursable entry fee of Rs. 20 for all the visitors during last Friday(Eid), Saturday and Sunday? You need to go back to August 2012 to get the possible answer.

In 2012, Ramzan Eid was on 21st August. Though Himalaya mall is located in 100% Hindu locality, and Muslim areas are kilometers away, look what happened on Eid 2012.

Read this news report published in DNA, a day after Eid in 2012:

On Monday, hundreds of youngsters flocked Himalaya mall on Drive-In road since morning to celebrate Eid. It raised difficulties for the security staff to manage the crowd. In the afternoon, the police had to step in to control some errant youth. The situation took an ugly turn when some teenaged boys gathered near women’s washroom and tried to enter it, because the men’s washroom was already full.

After seeing more than seven such teenagers gathering near the entrance of women’s washroom on the ground floor, G D Shukla, security officer, Himalaya mall, requested them to leave and advised them to use the gent’s washroom. “However, these boys started arguing with me. They refused to move away and were adamant to use the women’s washroom. When I tried to force them away, they even misbehaved with me,” claimed Shukla, who finally caught hold of one of those teenagers and called the control room.

After learning about the incident at 2:30pm, a Police Control Room (PCR) van of Vastrapur police rushed to the spot and took charge. Shukla and the minor boy were taken to Vastrapur police station. Since no complaint was filed against the boy and he was below 13 years of age, cops let him off after a warning.

Just as that matter was solved, the police received another call from the security staff of the mall that was panicking due to the unmanageable crowd. To avoid any unwanted situation during Eid, a PSI along with 4 constables once again rushed to the spot at 3:30pm and stayed there for 15 minutes. However, as nothing was found to be distraught, they left after advising the security staff to block the new entrants from coming inside.

Now look at this report published in The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition a day after year 2012 Eid:

There was a minor scuffle reported from Himalaya Mall on Drive-in Road on Monday, following tremendous rush of people in the wake of Eid-ul-Fitra and the end of Ramzan month.

The mall authority had to call up cops who brought the situation under control. Barring this incident, the festival period went off peacefully for the city cops. The city police had deployed extra staff at various walled city areas for maintenance of law and order and traffic management.

“The citizens thronged the mall especially to catch movies, have meals and also to shop in the festive season. There were thus some security concerns. Moreover, there were reports that some teenagers came to blows over minor issues. Our team thus visited the mall three times in two hours to maintain peace,” said an official of Vastrapur police station. However no complaint was filed in the incident.

This was perhaps the reason, why Himalaya mall imposed entry fee on Eid week-end this year. The mall manager told the Times of India that the mall witnessed three times more visitors on Eid week-end.

In such circumstances, to prevent the chaos like previous year, either the mall has to say ‘No’ to fresh visitors, or it has to shut down or has to impose some restrictions like entry fee. If entry fee is sought from only those who are suspected to be mischievous based on past experience, there’s nothing wrong. But was that the case?

On one side the Times of India report says that entry fee was charged from one community, on the other hand the tabloid version of the Times of India in its report quotes one Amit Chadda, a businessman from Sidhhapur saying,“I haven’t heard of a mall that charges an entry fee. I was stunned when I had to shell out money for the coupon.”

Now this was Amit, and not Amituddin, and he was charged for entry, so where is discrimination?

Even after the entry fee initiative, the mall had not peaceful Eid-week-end. Gujarati newspaper Sandesh reports on 10 August, 2013(a day after Eid): Himalaya mall is becoming a den of nuisance people. After the entry fee controversy, today the mall witnessed an incident of hand to hand fight. Those visiting the mall with family were feared following such scuffle. Today afternoon two groups of youths who were wearing black t-shirts first started verbal fight and later started hand to hand scuffle. A large crowd gathered around them due to the incident. It was looking like road side lukhkha elements( ‘lukhkha tatvo’ phrase is traditionally used in Gujarati newspapers to describe youths from particular community creating nuisance at public places) fighting with one another. Posh public visiting mall was shocked to see this. This incident happened due to new security jawans deployed in the mall today after entry fee controversy a day before. Luckily police rushed to the mall from outside and controlled the situation. Police kicked out ‘lukhkha’ elements from the mall premises. When asked, one customer told (Sandesh News) that the fight occurred over an issue of harassment to girl.

And stepping outside the Himalaya mall, are our public places same on Eid week-end?

City’s Navrangpura police on Saturday(10 August 2013) at around 9.30 pm arrested four bikers near Law Garden police chowky for driving rashly and creating nuisance on road. According to police, the accused were performing stunts on the road. The bikers arrested were: Fayyaz Mansuri (21), a resident of Kalupur, Mohammed Taufiq Sheikh (20), a resident of Relief Road, Salman Ansari (19), a resident of Relief Road and Mohammed Irfan Khokhar (19) a resident of Shahpur.

The accused have been booked under IPC Section 279 and Motor Vehicles Act Sections 177 and 184. Apart from the bikers, three pillion riders were also arrested under IPC Section 15. They were: Mohammed Irfan Mansuri (20), Mohammed Shoaib Sheikh (20), and Mohammed Nasir Sheikh (19).

And what happened last year on Eid in another part of the city?

Sandesh newspaper reported on 20th August, 2012 (Eid day): Four bikers harassed a girl in city’s CTM area and fled away after people thrashed them on road. Their two bikes were torched by the people. The incident happened on service road near Radhika park at 2.00 pm on Eid day when girls were passing on Active two wheelers, and youths riding on Pulsar and Passion bikes harassed them and passed indecent comments. As the girls shouted, other people came to their help. However, instead of being apologetic, four youths started fighting with the people. Soon other people rushed there. The youths were thrashed and beaten by public before they fled away. Angry public torched their bikes using petrol. One of those youths Mohammad Badr-e-alam Juben(Rakhial) later appeared at Ramol police station and told police that he was going on bike with his friend on the occasion of Eid and his bike faced accident with another bike and both bikes were caught in fire.

It should not be forgotten that there’s nothing new in entry fee, the same Himalaya mall was the first mall in Ahmedabad that imposed parking fee for everyone. Once you buy something of that value, the parking fee is returned.

While discussing the Himalaya mall decision to impose the entry fee, these facts, especially the facts in initial paragraphs should not be skipped/avoided. The Himalaya mall has reportedly slapped a legal notice against Times of India for Twisted story.


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