TN government roped in an outside agency to collect used liquor bottles, says Prohibition Minister

TASMAC workers will present a representation to the district administration in Salem | Photo credit: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

Prohibition and Excise Minister K Vignesh on Tuesday (May 26, 2026) said the Tamil Nadu government would formulate a plan to collect used empty liquor bottles through an external agency and urged the protesting TASMAC employees to return to work.

The minister said in a statement that as per orders of the Madras High Court, a pilot project to collect used empty liquor bottles was launched in Nilgiris district in May 2022. Since then, this program has been introduced in all districts except Chennai, Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar.

During the implementation of the program, employees complained about various practical difficulties. Stressing his main demand that used empty liquor bottles should be collected through an outside agency, most of the TASMAC outlets in Erode, Salem, Namakkal, Tiruppur, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts remained closed on Tuesday.

Although the CEO of TASMAC invited all union representatives and assured them that the grievances of the employees would be addressed as far as possible, the shops were not opened, he said.

At this point, in accordance with the demand of the employees, a system of collection of empty liquor bottles would be immediately formulated through an external agency and an affidavit would be submitted to the High Court, he added.

The program should be implemented by the end of June, completely eliminating the current practice of employees handling empty alcohol bottles, the minister said, calling on all protesting employees to return to work from Wednesday.

Published – 26 May 2026 23:37 IST