Ariyalur Collector has ordered relocation of a Tasmac-run IMFL retail outlet at Rajaji Nagar after students of a school nearby submitted a petition seeking her intervention. Officials have been instructed to shut the shop and look for alternative sites.
Speaking to The Hindu , an official of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (Tasmac) in the district said that Collector P. Ramana Saraswathi took cognisance of the effect of the liquor shop on the young children and ordered that it be relocated immediately. The officials have already begun to scout for alternative options. The stock kept at the shop has been relocated for the time being, he added.
E. M. Izhanthendral, a Class VI student and her brother Tamilarasan of Class IV had filed a petition on October 18, during the grievance redress meeting to close the TASMAC shop near their school. Bottles strewn around the entrance of their school on a daily basis were posing an inconvenience to them on a daily basis, they had said.
“The bottle pieces would pierce the feet of students who would walk over it unknowingly,” the petition read. Further, when the students returned from school in the evening, many men would crowd around the liquor shop and consumed alcohol, due to which the students felt unsafe, the children petitioned.
