Government approach on liquor shops upsets High Court

Justices A Selvam and Athinathan of the Madurai bench of the high court expressed dismay while hearing pleas against opening of the liquor shops in new locations in Madurai, Theni, Sivaganga, Kanyakumari and Thanjavur districts. “The Supreme Court has asked to close all the wine shops located within 500 metres from highways on a permanent basis. It did not ask you to shift the outlets. Why are you trying to shift them?” the judges asked the counsel. 

The bench also rejected the government counsel’s plea that if local people did not allow them to open outlets in new localities, they will have to be opened only in jungles. 

The judges ordered “status quo” on opening new shops. There were media reports that sites had been selected (for shifting shops) to the outskirts of towns/villages, but a section of youth and people there were opposing opening of the new liquor shops. In some places, shops had been ransacked and new buildings razed to the ground, the reports had said. 

Tense moments prevailed at Kilaakadu village near Tiruchengode in Namakkal District late on Tuesday evening as hundreds of liquor bottles were damaged during a protest by villagers. While the employees of the shop alleged that women protesters had damaged them, protesters alleged that the employees of the shop themselves had damaged them, in a bid to divert the protests. 

The shop mushroomed at one of the house sites at Jai Amman Nagar a couple of days ago as shop number 5996 located on the Tiruchengode-Salem Road was closed from April 1, following the Supreme Court direction. On Monday, villagers strongly objected to the functioning of the shop, following which it was closed. However, on Tuesday afternoon the shop’s Ramasamy (supervisor) and salesmen Raju and Ayyamuthu began selling liquor. Agitated villagers picketed the shop and staged a protest when the liquor bottles were damaged and both the sides started playing the blame game. The police assured that the shop would not be opened again, following which normalcy returned at night. 

Meanwhile, allegations have surfaced that liquor bottles were illegally sold in TASMAC-free Valparai at a much higher price from the maximum retail price at a few places in rural Coimbatore and other parts of the region. Activists alleged that the illegal sale was ignored by the police. 

Senior police officers claimed that they were not party to it and that they were conducting surprise checks near the TASMAC outlets that were closed and at suspected illegal sales pockets. Police said they are regularly confiscating hundreds of liquor bottles kept for illegal sale, while cases have been registered against the sellers. 

However, protests against relocating liquor outlets to residential areas and villages close to the highways continued for the 19th day on Wednesday.

Employees of closed Tasmac outlets have been asked to find a suitable place in the vicinity to relocate the shops. Over fear of losing their job they have started petitioning district collectors and the State Government. “They could be employed at the Public Distribution System outlets that face heavy manpower shortage,” AIDWA’s Coimbatore district secretary A Radhika said.