Days after Mumbai Circoloco called off, Maharashtra prepares SOP for live events

The committee will comprise senior law enforcement officers such as Additional DGP (Law and order); Additional DGP (Traffic), and Joint Commissioner of Police (Mumbai), civic authorities such as Additional municipal commissioner (BMC) and Additional collector (Mumbai city and Suburban); and top officials of emergency forces such as Maharashtra Fire and Emergency Services.

Currently, organisers of live events need to obtain permissions from approximately 10 to 15 different authorities, including fire services, police and traffic management authorities. This is a cumbersome and time-consuming process.

The state government has given a go-ahead to the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations to start the process for appointing an external agency to set up a dashboard and the mechanism to facilitate required permissions as per the SOP in the works.

Earlier this month, in a massive disappointment for fans of electronic music, Brazil-born event Circoloco’s India debut was cancelled. Circoloco was to debut on April 19 at the Jio World Garden in Bandra Kurla Complex. Over 4,000 tickets had been sold, and people had flown in from the UK, Costa Rica, Dubai and Sri Lanka, apart from cities across India. It was called off the day before.

A letter shared by Circoloco’s official account said police had denied permission, citing a “likelihood of large-scale uncontrolled crowd causing chaos and disturbance, which may lead to law and order problems”.