'TASMAC will turn TN youth into drunkards zone'

CHENNAI: Close down all Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) shops because boys as young as 13 and women in lower middle class have taken to drinks, demanded Magazhir Aayam, a women’s collective.

At a media meet on Wednesday, State coordinator of Magazhir Aayam Aruna said, “If the situation continues, Tamil society will soon become a drunkards’ society.” “What kind of government is this, that fuels the cause which leads to the moral destruction of its own society.

It is only bothered about generating revenue through the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation shops,” Aruna added.

To a query on will people stop drinking if the government shuts down the TASMAC outlets, Aruna replied, “Private players doing it is different. The government should regulate it. Running TASMAC is state-sponsored destruction of family life, where women are subjected to domestic violence.

Men spent 80 per cent of their earnings in the TASMAC shops.” To reiterate their demand they had launched a signature campaign in the districts and also in Chennai.

About 12,000 women had signed demanding the closure of TASMAC shops.

On Wednesday they submitted their petition, along with the signatures, to the officials at the Secretariat.

Magazhir Aayam said, though they do not have any statistics to back their claim that after DMK’s rule the situation have worsened, they have umpteen case studies from the grass root level to prove it.

Signatures were collected from Madurai, Chennai, Hosur, Cuddalore, Erode, Sivaganga, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.