CHENNAI: Implementing one of the most popular promises the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa made during her campaign for the Assembly polls, the State-run liquor retailer, TASMAC on Saturday announced the closure of 500 shops from Sunday. Already, the working hours of TASMAC shops were reduced by two hours from May 24 after the announcement by the Chief Minister.
The staff of these shut shops will be absorbed in others where there are vacancies. A separate order has been issued explaining the modalities for the transfer of these staff to other places.
According to the TASMAC administration, there are five regions and 33 TASMAC districts. Of these, Salem district has no shop for closure while Dharmapuri has only one shop to be closed. In Chennai district, seven shops will be closed. The highest number of shops to be closed down is in Sivaganga district (43) followed by its neighbour Ramanathapuram (36). “The recommendation of district collectors, senior regional managers of the TASMAC, and relevant details submitted by the district managers were considered while arriving at the list of 500 shops to be closed,” said R Kirlosh Kumar, TASMAC managing director, in the order late on Saturday.
The shops to be closed in other TASMAC districts are Kancheepuram (16), Tiruvallur (35), Coimbatore (5), Tirupur (8), Erode (16), Nilgiris (31), Madurai (37), Dindigul (10), Virudhunagar (27), Tirunelveli (9), Thoothukudi (30), Kanniyakumari (3), Theni (3), Tiruchy (14), Nagapattinam (16), Thanjavur (16), Pudukottai (14), Cuddalore (15), Karur (14), Tiruvarur (8), Villupuram (29), Perambalur (7), Krishnagiri (6), Namakkal (11), Vellore (8), Tiruvannamalai (18) and Arakkonam (4). The region-wise number of shops to be closed are: Chennai region (58), Coimbatore region (60), Madurai region (201), Tiruchy region (133) and Salem region (48).