Frontline warriors cry foul as boozers go berserk in Tirupati

Tirupati: Medical experts and frontline warriors in Tirupati expressed concern that all the dedicated efforts put in for over 40 days by doctors, health and sanitary workers, police and others, have vanished simply in the flow of liquor. "Why should we fight putting our own lives at risk?", said a senior doctor, reacting to the riotous scenes at the liquor shops on Monday.

Several other people deplored government's decision to reopen liquor shops at this crucial juncture. The single act had sent strong signals on what would happen once lockdown is lifted completely.

The police, who worked relentlessly during all these days in protecting the lives of the people, became helpless as they could not control the tipplers at the liquor outlets. Police officials were in a dilemma on imposing lockdown restrictions and at the same time allowing boozers to liquor shops. This is an embarrassing situation, commented a police official.

Multitude of impatient tipplers in serpentine queues - stretching to long distances - jostled and pulled at each other to get hold of their favourite brands, in total defiance of social distancing norm and even masks. The mad rush triggered traffic chaos and fears of increase in Covid-19 cases. The whole process has made the borders disappear between states and containment and non-containment zones.

All these days, police could restrict the movement of people from neighbouring states to border districts of AP. But on Monday, several border areas in Chittoor district were flooded with boozers from Tamil Nadu and the police had a tough time in controlling them. It was decided to suspend the sales for the day which made the wine lovers go empty handed.

Similarly, people in containment zones managed to cross over to non-containment zones to get their liquor.