Mumbai's college students are surprised by the Maharashtra government's decision to ban entry of under-21s to pubs and discotheques.

"If someone above 18 wants to go to a pub or discotheque why not we allow," asks Khushboo Ahuja, a first year student at Thadomal Engineering College. "I don't go to discos but I don't find anything wrong if people go to discos. If a boy or girl below 21 goes to discos it is his/her parents who should be bothered and not the government."

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Ashwin Hebbar, an 18-year-old student at the Mithibai Motiram Kundani College, says the decision is "ridiculous". "If we don't go who will go? Forty-year-old uncles? They are busy with their own families so there is no way they can find time for discos," he says.

Adds his friend Zahid Qureshi, 19, "I think by implementing such harsh rules the government is being very unfair to the younger generation."

He says it is the most stupid decision that the government has taken. "They must immediately withdraw it. The government has no right to become moral police in our lives."

Sanjay Gawkar, manager of Pamposh Bar & Restaurant, which opened two months ago near MMK College, is also surprised. "We say we are a free country. Why then have such restrictions on our youngsters? Moreover, we all will never be able to ask or judge which customer sitting in our hotel is below 21. This seems a very difficult task for us," he says.

Poonam Lalwani, 20, a student at National College, feels that by giving such orders the government is taking the society backwards. "In western countries children don't stay with their parents after the age of 18," she says. "They are independent and work for themselves. They know what is good for them and what is bad for them. And the government does not bother about such things. So why our government is trying to play our parents role, I don't understand."

Adds Vandana Lakhani, another student from MMK College, "Some people say that going to discotheques is bad. I don't agree. I feel it all depends on a person's mind… on how they perceive things. If they have bad and corrupt influence in their mind then obviously they will feel that disco culture is not good."