Schoolgirl downs shutters of Tasmac shop in Chinnalapatti
An 18-year-old girl created a flutter in Chinnalapatti in Dindigul district when she locked a Tasmac shop in her region on Tuesday. The PMK high command had called for a state wide stir demanding total prohibition, where they had proposed to lock the Tasmac shops in their region. The party has been demanding the removal of the 6,900 Tasmac shops in the state. Demonstrations were staged in many parts of Dindigul district including Athoor, Nilakottai, Chinnalapatti, Kodaikanal and Dindigul by members of the PMK on Tuesday.
They shouted slogans and distributed pamphlets on the dangers of alcohol among the public. On learning that her father, the Athoor union secretary of the PMK, and others had been arrested while trying to lock up the Tasmac shop number 3142 in their area, N Priyanka (18) daughter of M K Nagendran, walked up to the shop with the party flag in her hand, downed the shutters and locked the shop much to the surprise of onlookers and some tipplers who were inside the shop.
Priyanka said that she was frustrated that the police were preventing members of the PMK from protesting against alcohol, which had recently claimed a life of her relative and had decided to do what the elders could not do. The girl has completed her plus two and is awaiting the counseling to join an engineering course. She said that she had plans to study further and eventually join politics to serve the society.
"Total prohibition is something that should be implemented in the state without further delay, because I have seen many people becoming addicted to liquor and their families suffering," she said. Though the local villagers, most of them women, lauded the girl for her deed, her own family members were apprehensive that the police might harass them over her actions.