Villagers from Tamil Nadu throng liquor shops in Nellore district

Nellore: Wine shops across the district witnessed large crowds on Monday with tipplers thronging shops right from early hours to purchase liquor. Officials of the Prohibition and Excise Department planned to open all wine shops in the district but the border mandals like Tada and others faced jam-packed situation with the migrant population from Tamil Nadu rushing to the liquor shops.

There are seven shops at Bheemunivari Palem and Ramapuram villages and they witnessed heavy rush since morning with people from border villages located in Tamil Nadu making a beeline to the shops. In fact, there is a ban in Tamil Nadu on the wine shops due to lockdown and opening of shops in Andhra Pradesh elated the boozers in the border villages of the neighbouring State.

As people thronged the wine shops, things went out of control and the police swung into action to clear the rush at the shops and close them down. A similar situation prevailed in many mandals across the district. There are two shops in Atmakur town, and they witnessed huge number of tipplers joining the queue lines spread over more than a kilometre. Police ordered closure of the shops where the social distancing norm was ignored.

There was also a huge rush at the shops in Nellore city and the villages in Nellore rural constituency. Kanuparthipadu village in Nellore rural and Jaladanki mandal headquarters saw large number of people thronging the shops and the queue lines stretched to about two kilometres even before the shops were opened. People were seen waiting in queues braving hot summer temperature of 39 degrees Celsius in Nellore city.

"The situation turned messy with heavy crowds from the border villages of neighbouring State Tamil Nadu, basically from Red Zones arriving at the shops to buy liquor. This could lead to further spread of the virus and we finally decided to close the shops. Some of the shops also lacked licences," said an excise official.

Further, former Kovur legislator and TDP leader P Srinivasulu Reddy criticised the State government stating that the spirit of lockdown has been totally diluted with the opening of the liquor shops where people violated orders under Section-144. He expressed concern that there could be a spurt in number of Covid +ve cases with people not following the social distancing norm at the shops.