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Demanding immediate withdrawal of the Tasmac’s decision to open a liquor shop at Bethel Nagar near Pazhavoor and appealing to the district administration not to open liquor shops at any place between Sanganthiradu to Suthamalli, where the labourers live in large number, the CPI (ML) submitted petition to District Collector R. Sukumar on Monday. The petitioners said most of the villagers living in the hamlets between Sanganthiradu and Suthamalli are farmhands and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Program labourers, whose trivial income is being robbed of by the liquor shops at Kondanagaram and Thiruppanikarisalkulam. The poor families, after losing the breadwinners’ income to the liquor shops, are starving. Against this backdrop, the Tasmac has planned to open liquor shop at Bethel Nagar to increase the number of liquor shops to three within short distance as Kondanagaram and Thiruppanikarisalkulam already have liquor shops. While the number of people consuming liquor would sharply increase in these areas, the number of families losing their small income to alcoholism would also go up to leave the families in abject poverty. Moreover, the alcohol-induced crime rate would also increase menacingly in this poor rural area. In other words, the families would lose their peace while the children would lose their concentration on education. “Since this area is already a communally sensitive zone, given the crimes took place in the past, the Collector should instruct the TASMAC officials to cancel the order for opening the liquor shop at Bethel Nagar. Moreover, the Collector should also order that there should be no liquor shop between Sanganthiradu and Suththamalli,” the petition said. With similar plea, a group of villagers from Puthukurichi under Alwaneri village panchayat under Nanguneri taluk submitted a petition to the Collector. “The liquor shop is located just 70 meters away from the panchayat union primary school and we’ve to cross the liquor shop to reach our ranches or the temple in the village. A Class XII student from our village, who bought liquor from this shop on the first day of its opening, rode the bike under the influence of alcohol and is undergoing treatment in the hospital in critical condition. We’ve submitted more than 10 petitions in the past seeking regular supply of drinking water. Instead, the government has opened a liquor shop in our village. Will you close this liquor shop only after a drunkard sexually assaults a woman or a girl child?” the villagers asked vehemently after submitting the petition. A group of auto drivers from Suthamalli Junction submitted a petition appealing to the Collector not to relocate their auto-stand from Suthamalli Junction for facilitating the Suthamalli traffic island expansion as part of the Tirunelveli west bypass road. The petitioners said more than 125 auto drivers were members of the 30-year-old Suthamalli Junction auto-stand, who were serving the public coming to nearby Sri Uchipillayar Temple. Since the auto-stand and the temple were on the upcoming Tirunelveli west bypass road, the officials had issued notice for relocating the auto-stand to some other place and the temple as well. Considering the livelihood of the auto drivers, the Collector should allow the auto-stand to function from the same place besides exempting the temple from being removed as part of the road project, they said.
