Chennai: Tamil superstar and new Chief Minister of the state C. Joseph Vijay has given the order to close 717 state owned liquor shops within 500 metres of schools, temples, and bus stands in Tamil Nadu. The CMO has given two weeks to shut down all the liquor shops. This is the first order given by actor turned politician and leader of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, which secured historic win in Assembly election last month.
“With the welfare of the general public in mind, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, C Joseph Vijay, has issued orders to close within two weeks 717 retail liquor shops situated within a 500-meter radius of places of worship, educational institutions, and bus stands.” TASMAC currently operates 4,765 liquor shops in the state, 276 are near places of worship, 186 are near educational institutions, and 255 are near bus stands,” the government said.
The liquor shops operated by TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) gives state a huge revenue by selling liquor, in 2025 the revenue was more than Rs 48,000 crore.
Recent political development of TN
The TVK leader Vijay has won two seats one from Perambur and second Tiruchirapalli East and has now resigned from Tiruchirapalli East seat and retained Perambur.
The state has seen a week long drama, which ended after TVK got support from Congress, CPI, CPI-M, VCK, and other small party, Vijay’s party which now has 107 seats was 11 seats short from majority and had to wait to form a government.
It is the first step towards Vijay’s election promise of ‘addiction-free’ Tamil Nadu.
ED raids on TASMAC
In the month of April the Enforcement Directorate raided TASMAC offices for alleged money-laundering offence and said it found Rs 1,000 worth “unaccounted” cash. They further said that they have evidence of fraudulent pricing , surcharges of Rs 10 to Rs 30 per bottle sold by TASMAC shops. The former ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam then took it to Supreme Court for crossing jurisdictional lines.
A bench led by then Chief Justice BR Gavai asked, “what happens to the federal structure? Are you not taking away the states government’s right to investigate?” and “When you have a doubt….’ is the state not investigating’….. can you do it yourself?”
(Curated by Pushpak Gondane)