BHUBANESWAR: Upset with the district administration’s apathy towards their demand for closing the liquor shops in residential areas, a group of women, children and youth on Sunday ransacked a country liquor depot and four outlets in Bharatpur under Khandagiri police limits here.
The women allegedly assaulted the employees of the depot and destroyed bottles of liquor. The agitating women, who later staged a demonstration on a nearby road, said they had expressed their objection to the liquor shops to police and district administration but no step was taken to address their grievances.
The irate women also gheraoed Chandaka Police Station demanding action against the liquor vendors who operated in the area. While they were proceeding to ransack a foreign liquor shop near Naka Gate in Ghatikia, they were checked by the police. The district administration has sought one week’s time to shift the liquor shop at Ghatikia.
Drunken brawls on two-km stretch from Kalinga Studio Square to Kathagola and SUM Hospital Square are a regular affair, said a woman. “Several cases of domestic violence have been reported from the area. Women are assaulted by their husbands who steal utensils, ornaments, clothes and even books of children to buy liquor,” Sukanti Mohanta, president of All Odisha Krantikari Mahila Sangathan said.