HYDERABAD: A Group of around 30 women and 50 men on Sunday entered the toddy shop at Babu Jagjeevan Ram Nagar in Malkajgiri and ransacked the premises demanding that the shop be shifted to another locality. In about half an hour, police reached the place and tried to control the group, but the people refused to leave the compound and sat on a dharna. They left the spot only after the president of the toddy tappers society which runs the toddy compound locked up the place and left to lodge a police complaint against the group.
The toddy compound, spread across 250 yards, has 40 to 50 customers at any given point in the day. Around 300 to 400 middle-class families live near the toddy compound, apart from three primary schools within 100 metres away.
The locals’ repeated requests and complaints to authorities, explaining the nuisance they have been facing, have mostly been to no avail. Many are also apprehensive about their own safety, in the wake of drunk men wandering the locality round the clock.
They had also brought authorities’ attention to the fact that the toddy compound is located less than 100 metres away from a school. The school management had submitted their representation to the Medchal District Prohibition and Excise Officer to shift the toddy shop.
S Yashoda, a resident of BJR Nagar, said, “Without seeking an NOC from the residents living in the area, how can they run the toddy shop? If they continue this business here, there is a chance that the children might also slowly get addicted to toddy. The Excise authorities should take action and shift the toddy shop.”
Claiming that they have the necessary permissions and license to run the toddy shop from the compound, B Sudharshan Goud, president of Toddy Tapper Society, said that close to 120 families are directly dependent on them for a livelihood. Excise authorities said that they would take action if the toddy shop was found to flout norms.