107 Tasmac outlets closed on Friday to meet CM Vijay’s 717 target; 82 in Chennai region, 290 in Madurai region

Chennai: Marking the fulfilment of chief minister C Joseph Vijay’s promise to the electorate immediately after assumption of office, Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) closed 717 retail liquor shops located within 500m of educational institutions and religious worship places across the state.The exercise, however, had overshot the two-week deadline by nearly 10 days.Prohibition and excise minister K Vignesh told TOI that the original list of identified shops was reviewed and corrected. “We added shops with a high per-day sales volume of ₹25 lakh to the list and closed them too. The exercise was done with due care for people without consideration for the revenue part,” he said. He added the status was updated to Vijay during a review meeting at the Secretariat on Friday.On Friday alone, Tasmac closed 107 shops to reach its target number and the management has instructed district management to redeploy the workers of the closed shops to alternative shops. Tasmac has also transferred the district managers of Karur, Dharmapuri, Arakkonam, Krishnagiri, Erode and Vellore citing administrative reasons.Across the state, 472 liquor outlets with attached bars, 224 standalone outlets and 21 imported liquor shops have been closed.Madurai region saw 290 of it 1,208 shops being closed, the highest number of closures across the state.In Chennai region, where 95 shops were initially identified, only 82 shops have been closed — four imported liquor shops, 63 shops with an attached bar and 15 standalone shops.With this, the number of Tasmac liquor vending outlets in the region, which covers Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet, has come down to 673.