Students of Vidyaa Vikas Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Karamadai, on Monday petitioned District Collector M. Karunagaran, requesting him to direct the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) administration to remove a shop that was close to their campus.
The students said that there were 3,500 students studying in the school and of those 2,250 resided at the hostel on the campus. During weekends or holidays when parents went to the campus to drop their children in the evenings after a day’s outing they felt that the safety of the children was compromised because of the presence of the liquor outlet. Women teachers also found it difficult to enter the campus in the evenings.
Often during weekends, the tipplers entered into a brawl, abused one another in foul language and acted in a manner that disturbed the peaceful academic atmosphere on the campus. There had been instances when they attempted to manhandle the security in an attempt to enter the hostel. The students were also psychologically disturbed.
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The students said that keeping in mind their interest, the Collector should initiate action in such a way that the Tasmac administration removed shop no: 2245 in Chikkarampalayam Panchayat.
Apart from the students, the Pattali Makkal Katchi also petitioned Mr. Karunagaran urging him to implement the Madras High Court order on removing liquor outlets from highways. In a petition, the party’s State deputy general secretary A. Thangavel Pandian said that following the court order asking the State government to shift the liquor outlets from the highways, the government had initiated action.
In this regard, the district administration should shift the shops that were on Avanashi Road in Karumathampatty, Thennampalayam, Chinniampalayam, R.G. Pudur, near airport, SITRA, Hope College and also the shops on Sathyamangalam Road in Annur, on Tiruchi Road in Singanallur and other places, on Pollachi Road and Palakkad Road.
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While shifting and relocating the shops, the Tasmac administration should take in to account the residents’ protest. If residents were to protest, the administration should not establish the outlets there. In short, without residents’ concurrence, no liquor shop should be established.
The district administration should set an example for others by closing all the liquor outlets at the earliest, he added.