Residents from Kanappa Nagar in Sanganur and Chennai Silks Colony near Madukarai Market have in a petition requested the District Collector to close down the TASMAC outlets in their locality.

Representatives from all parties in the area met the District Collector today and requested him to close down all the four TASMAC outlets in their locality. Former local body representative S Meena Logu was highly critical of the authorities who opened two new shops in the locality and doubled the number. “We petitioned with the District Collector earlier against the opening of new outlets and he had then promised that no new shops would be opened. But he did not keep his work,” she said.

According to the petition, the distance among the four outlets is not more than 300 meters and tipplers are posing problems to the residents. Also, accidents along the Sanganur Road had gone up. The petitioners said that if the District Collector failed to act, they would hand over their ration cards, voter IDs, Aadhaar cards and other government identity proofs to the authorities as a mark of protest.

Residents, especially women and children from Chennai Silks Colony near Madukkarai Market also petitioned the District Collector against opening any outlet in their locality. The residents said that there were schools in the area. They said that if the authorities failed to act, people would be `forced to take law into their hands’.