A day after the High Court’s deadline for shifting of all government-owned Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) liquor outlets located along national highways, residents in a number of areas in the city’s southern suburbs protested the shifting of these outlets to residential localities.
Residents resorted to a spontaneous protest when efforts were made to open an outlet in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, Pallavaram.
Initially, there was only a small group of residents, but numbers swelled towards noon. Later, office-bearers of the local units of different political parties extended their support.
Chitlapakkam police said officials had decided to shift shop No. 4334 — which till recently was functioning in Otteri near Vandalur — to Sanjay Gandhi Nagar below the road over bridge at the intersection of Grand Southern Trunk Road and Pallavaram–Thoraipakkam Radial Road.
Party cadres said there was a cluster of liquor outlets on the Radial Road which had caused immense problems, adding they would continue to oppose the opening of the outlet in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar.
The police said it had been decided not to open the outlet in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar for now and the Kancheepuram District administration would decide further.
Similar protests took place in Sembakkam, Urapakkam, Guduvanchery and Pammal, among other areas.
Welcoming the Madras High Court orders, protestors said problems associated with outlets on national highways were simply being shunted elsewhere.
Those protesting in Sembakkam said they had been complaining for long about the problems caused by an outlet near Gowrivakkam bus stop, with residents of the locality as well as devotees on their way to temples and churches in the locality frequently facing situations caused by those visiting the outlets.
Abiding by court’s deadline, TASMAC shops are being shifted from national highways
