Ganesapuram residents stage protest against Tasmac shop

Coimbatore: More than 50 residents of Ganesapuram in Annur on Monday petitioned the collector against the plan to set up a Tasmac liquor outlet in the area.
The residents, including women and young girls, said that the outlet will be set up on a piece of land that was earlier used for farming. “A building has come up at Siva Nagar on a 1.36-acre land. A worker told us that it will house a liquor outlet,” president of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association (CITU) S Palanisamy said.
Ganesapuram is a primary agriculture belt with a lot of agricultural activity, residential areas, schools and hospitals, the residents said. “A liquor outlet will threaten our livelihoods and pose a threat to the safety of the residents. The plot is close to KG School, attended by several children from the locality,” said R Savithri, a resident. “There are as many as 10 Tasmac outlets in and around Annur. Recently, two youths returning from a liquor outlet on a motorcycle had killed a woman on a scooter in Anaikatti. We do not want such accidents to happen in our locality. The authorities concerned should find another spot in the village, away from houses and schools to set up the outlet.”
A Tasmac outlet in a farming belt, where a lot of women work on fields and men get daily wages, is a risky proposition, Palanisamy said. “It will make it unsafe for women and prompt the men to spend wages.”