Tamil Nadu has earned the rare “distinction” of providing armed security guards to liquor outlets in the State. Most of the TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) outlets, the Government-owned monopoly agency which sells liquor in the State, have been provided with armed police security following the anti-liquor campaign being held by some of the organisations demanding total prohibition in the State. Wednesday morning saw 40-year-old T Selvam, a TASMAC employee, getting killed when anti-liquor campaigners set fire to the outlet at Salem.
There are 6800 TASMAC liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu. The Government has posted sten-gun wielding policemen in front of most of the outlets following ransacking of the shops by the activists and agitators. The last week saw more than a dozen TASMAC shops getting gutted, ransacked and set on fire by those crusading against the flow of liquor in the State. Meanwhile questions are being asked about the “fate” of liquor stock ransacked from the outlets by the activists.
Tamil Nadu police have registered an attempt-to-murder case against Vaiko, the MDMK leader, who on Sunday led a group of activists to ransack a liquor outlet in his village Kalingapetty in Tirunelveli district. Since Monday, the activists and organisations campaigning for prohibition have fielded students to attack all liquor outlets in the State which has forced the administration to post armed policemen in front of these shops.
The policemen seem to enjoy their new assignment and welcome the tipplers with a pleasant smile. “What is happening in the name of anti-liquor campaign is nothing but goondaism. This is an agitation unleashed by some activists and dubious organisations. What we need is prohibition by democratic process,” K Balu, a lawyer and senior PMK leader told The Pioneer.
What has baffled the authorities including the policemen are the whereabouts of the bottles ransacked by the campaigners. Though the activists claim that the bottles are being destroyed in front of the outlets, no broken bottles were to be seen anywhere near the outlets. “The activists who claim to be students ransacked the shops and ran away with the stock which they could lay their hands on,” said a student of Pachaiyappa’s College on Poonamallee High Road in Chennai.
“This has become a pattern. Some of the radical youth outfits are robbing liquor outlets of their stock under the pretext of agitation,” said Anand, an ABVP activist.