In a statement on Sunday, PMK president Anbumani asked whether the announcement made by Excise Minister V. Senthilbalaji on April 12 in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that around 500 Tasmac shops would be closed was just a pretext.
There is no indication that they will be closed, he said.
He said that the standard answer of the state government seems to be that the shops which are about to be closed are being counted, whenever the question arises as to why the shops have not closed yet.
“The data of how many liquor stores are there and its location, its revenue, and where the public has protested is already with the TASMAC administration. It can access the data in an hour and generate a list of 500 shops that need to be closed. But, TASMAC is not finding any reason to struggle to do so,” he said.
Dr Anbumani said that a total of 1000 liquor shops – 500 in 2016, 500 in 2017 – were closed.
“After the announcement in 2016, liquor shops were closed within 27 days. Today, the number of liquor shops is less as compared to 2016,” he said questioning the delay of 40 days.