Implementing liquor bottle buy-back scheme impractical, HC told

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) on Monday informed the Madras High Court that there are several practical difficulties in implementing the liquor bottle buy-back scheme in Tasmac liquor outlets across the State.

Additional Advocate General J Ravindran made this submission before the division bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy during the hearing of a batch of writ petitions in connection with forest and wildlife protection.

The AAG informed the judges that while it was so easy to implement the liquor bottle buy-back scheme in hilly regions where hardly six or seven liquor shops are functioning, it is tough to implement the same in other parts.

“One can buy liquor at Anna Nagar in Chennai and may consume the same in Mylapore. If he intends to surrender the bottle at a liquor shop in Mylapore, it will create room for discrepancies. Certainly, it will affect the accounting system in the Tasmac,” the AAG noted.

However, judges said it is not a big issue and the government could identify a viable solution to sort out the problem.

The bench asked Tasmac how many bottles are being sold every month and about the mechanism followed to collect them back.

The AAG said that about 52 crores of bottles are being sold out through Tasmac outlets per month. Recording the submissions, the judges asked Tasmac whether all these bottles should be allowed to affect the environment.

When the AAG noted that the private liquor companies have a body with 600 members to collect the empty bottles from the bars, the judge asked why should not the government engage them in collecting these bottles at any place. Nevertheless, the AAG noted, “When someone is purchasing a liquor bottle at one place and returning the same somewhere else, it cannot be followed up properly.”

Recording the submissions, the judges directed the government to come out with a solution to fix this issue, adding, “In hill stations, about 74 per cent of bottles have been returned back in a month. Of course, it was achieved without any advertisements or awareness initiatives. We could not leave this scheme,” the judges noted.

The matter was adjourned on September 26.