NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, MAY 5
The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday shelved its decision to open state-owned TASMAC outlets under the jurisdiction of Great Chennai City Police from Thursday (May 7) as was announced on Monday.
The liquor shops in GCCP limit will not be opened till further notice, a release from the government said. The decision was apparently taken due to spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city on Monday.
The state government on Monday had announced that it would open the liquor outlets from May 7 onwards. The shops will function between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
However, it was not specified whether the liquor outlets be opened in other parts of the state in the release.
The liquor retail in Tamil Nadu is a state monopoly run by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation or popularly known as TASMAC .
There are over 5,300 TASMAC liquor outlets in the state contributing about Rs 30,000 crore of tax revenue to the state exchequer.
The Tamil Nadu government said in order to control the movement of people in the border areas with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as liquor shops have been opened there, the decision to open the liquor shops in the state was taken.
Major opposition parties and TASMAC employees’ unions affiliated to opposition parties in the state had strongly criticised the government’s decision to open the liquor outlets at a time when the numbers of persons getting infected with Coronavirus in the state are on the rise.
On Monday, the number of persons testing positive for Coronavirus in Chennai was 266 and in the state it was 527.
