Compiled by DIYANA PFORDTEN, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
THE frustration of not being able to get a drink drove a group of men to stage a protest by blocking traffic in a south Indian city, Makkal Osai reported.
It all began when hundreds of state-owned Tasmac liquor shops in Tamil Nadu were shut down by workers following disagreement over an “empty bottle buy-back scheme” introduced by the government.
When two of the Tasmac shops in Tiruchi city were shuttered by workers, these drinkers depended on the only remaining privately owned liquor shop in the city.
But the shop quickly ran out of stock, leaving many people disappointed.
A few men who tried and failed to buy a drink decided to lie down on the road in front of the shop, blocking all traffic.
Police, who were called to the scene, calmed them down and removed them from the road.
Other drinkers have called on the government to reopen the Tasmac shops quickly.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
