Minister for Prohibition in the DMK government Senthil Balaji, while speaking in the Assembly, had claimed that no corruption is taking place in the issuance of tenders for government liquor outlets. However, there has been no satisfactoory answer to why bar owners, gathered in front of the house of the Minister and protested.
Many bar owners have also approached the courts filing a case against wrongful sale of bar tenders.
In a recent video released by Ilaya Bharatham run by YouTuber Karthik Gopinath, the Chief of the TASMAC Bar Association, N Anbarasan and the Secretary of the Association, Balamurugan had spoken about the corruption in the sale of bar tenders.
The Tamil Nadu government earns a lumpsum amount of its revenue from sale of liquor through TASMAC outlets which ammounts approximately ₹33000 crores. TASMAC Bar Association chief Anbarasan and Secretary Balamurugan, have however said that there are a lot of problems associated to the sale of bar tenders. Speaking the Ilaya Bharatham, Anbarasan said, “Bars have been functioning for almost 18 years now. Till now, there have been no misuse of this, as we have been running these bars transparently. However, now, on the 30th they announced the sale of tenders. While the Minister announced that the sale happened in 30 districts, it never actually happened. Nowhere have bars opened up in these 30 districts that the minister claims that the tender was sold at. The government has also faced losses for the month of January, as there was a reduction in revenue received. I’m not sure as to how the government is going to deal with this issue. But, I know that if the tender sale happened transparently, these issue wouldn’t have even come up in the first place.”
There is an accusation that the tenders were majorly given to those belonging to the Karur district. While speaking about this Anbarasan said that, the problem is not that these tenders have been given to people belonging to Karur. However, they have been given to those who have not gotten the land or builder’s NOC (No Objection Certificate).
Most of the tenders that have been allocated, the bars have not been opened yet. Many have approached the courts complaining about this. Talking about this, he said, “When 2 year tenders were given back in 2019, bars were kept closed for a period of 18 months. And therefore many have approached the courts for justice, demanding that the tender system itself is done away with. When the government said that it is not possible, we then asked them to atleast conduct it transparently.”
The secretary Balamurugan also said that when they approached Minister Senthil Balaji he told them that the tender bid process is happening transparently and without corruption. However, he claims that they were not able to access the Tender application form, which were supposed to available from December 15. They then went to the court demanding transparent tender bids. Only after the court said that everybody should be able to access the application forms, the website beccame accessible for some. Even then, only a group of bidders from Karur were allowed to bid those tenders, and many others from other districts were not even allowed to participate in the bid.
The chief of the TASMAC Bar Association, Anbarasan, is now suspended from DMK, citing the protest that they staged in front of the Minister’s house. However, Anbarasan clearly states that the problem comes from Minister Senthil Balaji, and not the DMK party at large. So, the accusation is that the Minister is trying to replace the old tender system, to fit in a new one.
He also said that in order to run a TASMAC wine shop and bar, the keepers have shell out 1.8% of the revenue as rent to the government. It is because of this that the cost of water bottles and other items inside the bar is higher, he said as they need to make some profit. He also says that almost 7.5 lakh families are dependant upon the TASMAC for their livelihood, and therefore requests the government to take some action.
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