MADURAI: Summer or winter, polling day or counting day, they need to get their daily quota. But, it seems the district administration is least bothered about the need of the juiceheads as all the Tasmac shops in the district are remaining closed for two days in view of the by-election in Tirupparankundram.
The tipplers in the district were in no mood to give up. On Sunday, they made a beeline for the liquor shops in the border district — Sivaganga.
As the Tasmac outlets in the district were remaining closed on Saturday and Sunday following the directives issued by Collector S Nagarajan, a large queue extending to half a kilometre was seen in front of a liquor shop at Puliyur in Madurai - Sivaganga border.
Located on Samanatham main road, which is barely one kilometre from Madurai district limits, the liquor shop witnessed a huge crowd. Police personnel were deployed in the area to manage the crowd of tipplers.
Speaking to Express, Muthupandi, a resident of Anupanadi, who came to buy liquor said that though the shops were closed in Madurai, liquor was sold in black market in a few places for high rates. “Instead of getting duplicate or spurious liquor for high price, it is better to get it from the TASMAC shops,” he said.
Selva Ganesh, another customer said that most of the persons standing in the queue were from Madurai and that they were standing there since 11 am. “Many people from Madurai have hired taxis to reach here as this TASMAC shop is the closest one to Madurai,” he said.
Sources said that in the afternoon there occurred slight chaos when more than thousand persons gathered at the Tasmac shop.