Of the 173 liquor shops in Tirunelveli district, 128 shops situated close to the highways have been closed. Apart from this, 18 bars attached to hotels have been closed.
Since only five shops in Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai – one each at Kurukkuthurai, Thatchanallur, Mada Street in Tirunelveli Town, Thirumal Nagar and near Maharaja Nagar ‘Uzhavar Sandhai’ - ‘escaped’ from being axed by the court’s directive, many people were seen vying with one another to buy a bottle of liquor in front of these shops since Saturday noon.
Barricades had been erected in front of these shops to regulate the crowd.
The 7 km-long bypass connecting Madurai Road at Thatchanallur with the Nagercoil Highway at NGO Colony had eight liquor shops to quench the ‘thirst’ of tipplers. Now these shops along with two more shops – one near Government Adi Dravida Hostel and the other opposite the new bus-stand – which was opened to bring alcohol still closer to the consumers, have been closed.
Of these shops, the one near the new bus stand and the other near the Rail Over Bridge on South Bypass Road registered brisk sales everyday and the collection crossed a couple of lakh rupees on Saturdays.
A minimum of 50 bikes and around 15 cars could be seen parked in front of the bar attached to these two liquor shops on Saturdays, particularly between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Now, all these shops, which remain closed as of now, have to be relocated to some other place beyond 500 meter as per the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In Kanniyakumari district, 56 TASMAC liquor shops including those attached with bars were closed from the midnight on March 31 (Friday), said an official here on Saturday. With this, the total number of TASMAC shops in the district has come down to 79 from 144.
An official attached to TASMAC said that 12 shops located near the National Highways and 44 shops on the State Highways were closed. Besides, six bars attached to leading hotels with FL3 License, 3 bars in clubs with FL2 License and a bar in Hotel Tamil Nadu with FL3A License were closed as per the order of the Supreme Court.
In Ramanathapuram district, hours after officials closed down liquor shops on state and national highways, tipplers thronged liquor shops, located in interior parts and resorted to panic buying. For a large section of alcoholics, the apex court order, making state and national highways liquor-free zones came as a rude shock as the officials pulled down the shutters of as many as 88 shops located on these highways in the district.
Fearing law and order problem, police force was deployed in front of the outlets. After they closed down 88 shops located on the highways, there were only 41 open in the district, officials said.
In Rameswaram, all the nine shops, located on the national highway in Rameswaram and Thangachimadam were closed. After closing down shops located on the highways, officials began inspecting places in interior areas to relocate the shops only to face protests from the public, especially women.
Villagers of Ilandaikulam, near Sayalkudi staged a protest and objected when officials wanted to relocate a shop in the village. A similar situation prevailed in Sivaganga district, as officials closed down 86 shops located on state and national highways. Only 42 shops were open on Saturday, police said.
