The TASMAC outlets across Tamil Nadu, apart from Chennai, resumed its operations on Thursday after being closed for 43 days in the wake of the lockdown and the tipplers across the state queued up before the outlets on the first day of the operations to buy liquors as the state government had decided to end their long wait by nullifying the demands from the opposition parties and women over not to open the outlets amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

The district administrations had rolled out various restrictions for the liquor buyers while purchasing the liquor. Tiruppur district is one of the hard-hit districts by the pandemic and the district collector mandated the tipplers that they should carry the umbrellas without which they can't purchase the liquor. The collector said that the customers must wait in queues under their umbrellas to ensure social distancing. 

However, people used it for a different purpose. The tipplers in Tiruppur city had gathered before the outlets much prior to opening the shop and they used their umbrellas to reserve their spots and upon opening, they stood with the umbrellas, letting its demand go high. According to the reports, the umbrellas that were usually sold for Rs 100 in the city are now being sold as high as Rs 180. In Madurai, people were seen with much excitement as the outlets in the district, except the ones in containment zones, were opened amid the police security.

The TASMAC has hired volunteers to its outlets to provide sanitizers to the tipplers to clean their hands following which they are allowed to buy liquor. The reports say that 25 people would be permitted in front of the outlet and the rest of the place would be provided with tokens letting them wait in nearby places. The state marketing corporation has announced that people should carry Aadhaar card and they should wear masks to get liquor. 

The corporation has advised the tipplers to come to the outlets three days once. It was announced that liquor would be sold based on age and time. People above 50 years can get liquor between 10 am to 1 pm, while people between 40-50 years can purchase liquor between 1 pm to 3 pm and people below 40 years can buy between 3 pm to 5 pm. However, the reports revealed the age proof was not checked in most of the places.

Most of the districts witnessed a long queue that stretched for a kilometer as the liquor lovers thronged to buy liquor and most of them were seen rubbing soldiers by taking a break from the social distancing norms. Despite the deployment of police personnel to reaffirm social distancing norms, at least 100 people had gathered before many outlets at a time as the visuals aired shocking developments to the state's containment strategy as the government has still been aiming to flatten the curve of COVID-19 affected cases. 

Dozens of women in Sellur, Madurai district had protested against opening the shops in their locality. However, the police personnel had dispersed them letting the shops have uninterrupted re-opening. The authorities said that an individual can only buy one bottle of 750 ml of liquor or four bottles of 150 ml liquor or one bottle of 650 ml beer each day.

According to the state government's directive, the TASMAC outlets would be functioning from Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm across the state except in containment zones. However, the order won't applicable for Chennai as all the outlets in the capital city would remain closed in the wake of surging COVID-19 cases. By opening the outlets, the government claimed that it would restrict the movement of Tamil people to neighboring states to buy liquor. However, the move had sparked protests from the opposition parties. The state government has deployed police personnel to the outlets to ensure people follow social distancing.

DMK and Communist parties had staged protests against the resumption of the liquor shops. They wore black shirts and held black flags against the decision, that has feared to increase the COVID-19 clusters while the state government is still working out to mitigate the Koyambedu cluster. Earlier this week, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had opened the liquor shops amid the nationwide lockdown.