Chennai: The the Madras High Court has ordered the closure of liquor shops in Tamilnadu, the TASMAC has managed to earn Rs 294.59 crore in just two days.
According to sources, Rs 122 crore was collected from shops across Tamilnadu on Friday alone. The Madras High Court on Friday ordered closure of all state-run liquor outlets in Tamilnadu, a day after they reopened following easing of Covid-19 lockdown curbs, saying there was total violation of guidelines, but allowed door delivery through online mode.
Noting that there were huge crowds before the shops and no social distancing was maintained, a bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and Pushpa Satyanarayana passed the order on a miscellaneous petition filed by advocate G Rajesh, besides a plaint from Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).
The bench said there was total violation of its interim order issued on Wednesday, when it declined to stay a government order allowing resumption of sale of Liquor through the latter”s outlets. Besides the guidelines issued by the state government and the TASMAC, the sole retailer of liquor in Tamilnadu, were also violated, it said.
However, the court allowed online sale of liquor and door delivery till the lockdown to check spread of coronavirus was over. After a dry spell of 43 days due to the COVID-19 lockdown since March 24, liquor sales resumed at the TASMAC outlets in Tamilnadu except Chennai on Thursday.