Kerala State Co-operatives Consumers’ Federation Limited (Consumerfed), the apex body of consumer co-operatives, may have to shut down 29 out of its 39 liquor outlets across the State unless they are relocated by March 31, M. Ramanunny, Consumerfed managing director, has said.
The Supreme Court had directed the relocation of all liquor outlets situated along national and State highways by that date. “If we fail to comply with the direction, all our 29 outlets, which need relocation, would lose licences,” he said while talking to The Hindu after the protests over the shifting of a Consumerfed liquor outlet from Vyttila Junction to Chettichira near Ponnurunni turned violent on Thursday.
Consumerfed had approached the apex court for an extension of time for the relocation of outlets and the case has been posted for March 27.
Mr. Ramanunny termed the protests as ‘illogical and irrational’ even as he wondered how the outlet, which didn’t attract any opposition at Vyttila Junction, suddenly triggered a protest after being shifted just 450 metres away to Ponnurunni.
He said that multiple sites, including Panampilly Nagar, had been considered for the relocation but had to be dropped eventually over public protest. “This is a government organisation and will have to function somewhere legally,” he said.
He said that he had discussed the matter with P.T. Thomas, MLA, within whose constituency limit the area falls, and had conveyed Consumerfed’s willingness to shift the outlet to any other place.
Mr. Ramanunny rejected allegations that the staff of the outlet had attacked the protesters, vouching for the 11 women and six male staff who were deployed at the outlet.
Meanwhile, the sales at the outlet, which normally does an average business of around ₹25 lakh, took a hit following protests ever since it was shifted on Tuesday evening. It managed ₹4.80 lakh in just two hours of operations on Tuesday before sales nosedived to ₹9,000 the next day. Sales worth only ₹14,000 were recorded till 5 p.m. on Thursday after the good part of the day was lost to protests.
