Voices against liquor outlets in residential localities in Bhadrachalam town are getting shriller each passing day.
Consequently, the demand for making the temple town a liquor-free zone is gaining momentum with an overwhelming number of denizens joining the chorus.
A section of residents of the Medical Colony and its adjoining localities launched an agitation a fortnight ago protesting against the alleged move by the prospective licensees to open three retail liquor shops in their neighbourhood along the main thoroughfare leading to Gollagatta. The stir evoked overwhelming support from various mass organisations including the AIDWA, which took up the cudgels against the proposal to set up liquor shops in the residential zone dotted with several educational institutions.
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The agitation has now spread to Shilpinagar area, where two liquor shops had already come up. The local residents, mainly women, started a campaign against the operation of two liquor outlets near Shilpinagar citing inconvenience to passers-by, mainly the devotees bound for the historic Sri Sitaramachandra Swamy shrine.
The issue has been represented to Collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu seeking his intervention to disallow operation of liquor outlets in residential areas of the temple town. Taking cue from the campaign, the residents of Lakshmidevipalli near the district headquarters town of Kothagudem held a road roko in the village on Saturday demanding removal of a liquor shop set up in their residential area, sources said.
Liquor sale should be banned in Bhadrachalam to safeguard the sanctity and spiritual ambience of the temple town, contends Busireddy Shankar Reddy of Bhadradri Prantha Parirakshana Samithi.
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At a time when the State government is mulling development of Bhadradri on the lines of Yadadri, the authorities ought to take steps to make the temple town a liquor-free zone, he insisted.