A total of 20 cinemas — single-screens as well as multiplexes — in Ahmedabad were sealed by the local Municipal Corporation Estate Department for not possessing a separate cinema building use (BU) permission. Cinemas need a special BU certificate, without which they cannot operate in any building. Cinemas in other parts of Gujarat (like Veraval etc.) have similarly been sealed.
The state administration has cracked down upon commercial properties functioning without proper licences and authority following the life-claiming fire which broke out in a gaming zone in Rajkot recently.