Residents of Indira Nagar and host of gated communities in Nanjundapuram on Wednesday opposed the shifting of a TASMAC-run liquor outlet to their area. They said that the TASMAC administration in Coimbatore planned to shift Shop No. 1701 from Thiruvalluvar Nagar to Indira Nagar and locate it in the midst of houses in a completely residential area.
The residents of Thiruvalluvar Nagar also staged a protest saying they wanted the shop shifted at any cost. According to sources, the residents had been protesting for over six months now saying that the presence of a liquor outlet and bar in their area had troubled them to no end.
Inebriated men teased women and girls in the evening hours and in mornings they were found lying on the streets.
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The presence of the shop created an unhealthy living climate.
Following their protest, the zonal manager of TASMAC, Coimbatore, issued an order on September 25 (Tuesday last) stating that the shop 1701, functioning in Thiruvalluvar Nagar, Ramanathapuram, should be shifted to Door No. 86, Nanjundapuram Road, Indira Nagar.
Tuesday’s letter from the TASMAC administration came with months of a the district manager, TASMAC, Coimbatore, stating in a reply to a letter from the Chief Minister’s special cell that there was no proposal to shift the shop to Indira Nagar.
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The residents of the area had obtained a copy of the letter by filing a Right To Information application.
G. Premanand, a resident of a gated community on Nanjundapuram Road said that the residents of the area had complained to Collector M. Karunagaran about Tuesday’s developments.
When the TASMAC administration contemplated shifting the shop to Indira Nagar, they had raised their objections.
The residents had said that the presence of a shop would hamper women taking morning/evening walks and children playing in the area, as they often do by moving from one community to another. It would affect around 5,000 residents in all.
Traffic congestion
The place where the shop was proposed to be located was close to a crematorium, petrol bunk and bus stop. If the TASMAC liquor outlet were to be set up there, it would also create traffic congestion, complained the representatives of another residents’ association.
Following protests from residents at both the locations, the TASMAC district administration took the goods to its warehouse in Kavundampalayam.