News Tamil Nadu

Dravidian Model: TASMAC Outlets Function Normally As Flood-Affected People Struggle For Drinking Water & Milk

December 7, 2023
The Commune

In the wake of Cyclone Michaung, residents of the city of Chennai are contending with the harsh realities of the aftermath, struggling to secure essential items such as milk and drinking water. Surprisingly, amidst these challenges, it has come to light that TASMAC outlets in the city are still operational as usual.

In this video, people are seen asking, “There is no power and children are suffering from that. They have kept TASMAC shops open, is that even justified? So you have water to be used in liquor shops and here we do not have water to even wash our legs or drink! The basic essentials we need are water and milk and we do not have access to both. But these liquor shops are open. How is this justified? A milk packet costs 50 rupees and we do not have access to milk for the past 3 days. They are not responding to our complaints about power restoration. When we called in the afternoon at 1.30 PM they told us it would be restored in half an hour and there is no power for the past 4 days.”

People were seen queuing up at TASMAC outlets on 6 December 2023.

Ironically, on 3 December 2023, Puthiya Thalaimurai had reported that TASMAC outlets would be shut on 4 December 2023 on account of the cyclone. 

It is noteworthy that several parts of the city are still without power and regular distribution of Aavin milk has not started entirely owing to the inaccessibility in most places.

Some people seen moving out of their homes after water inundated their homes say that milk packets were being sold at ₹70. 

Many shops and milk parlours had no choice but to turn away customers due to the unavailability of state-owned Aavin milk. A visual from the Sowcarpet area in Chennai shows people scrambling to get Aavin milk packets from a truck.

Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party leader H Raja shared a newspaper clipping of the rates at which milk and drinking water were being sold – milk at ₹200, water at ₹250 allegedly.

Several others mentioned that milk was being sold at ₹70 at most places.

 

Milk was not delivered in several parts of the city as mentioned in this X post.

However, serpentine queues were found outside TASMAC shops indicating brisk sales of liquor.

A resident of Mutthamizh Nagar in Kodungayur suburb of Chennai noted that while they’ve been suffering for 3 days without drinking water, the TASMAC shops have been opened.

 

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