Chamarajanagar: Women accompanied by villagers succeeded in stalling the reopening of a liquor outlet at a prime location in a village near Terakanambi of Gundlupet Taluk.

The owner of the liquor shop had shifted his outlet to the village’s Bommalapur Road land to fulfil Supreme Court order to stay clear of 220 meters from the state highway. Department of Excise and Gram Panchayat too approved the proposal.

However, women and villagers protested on July 1 alleging that the new outlet will affect public at large as it is situated near drinking water tank, tribal hamlet, government pre-university college, police quarters and Morarji Desai Residential School. However, none of the excise officials intervened, tacitly supporting the outlet owner hoping for the agitation to fizzle out. Finally, police pulled down the shutters on July 1 to please the villagers.

When the shop re-opened for business on July 3, women along with villagers urged the shop owner to shut the door. Some women were injured in the melee when the shop owner refused to pull down the shutters. The situation remained tense for a while as women refused to budge and insisted on closure.

Circle Inspector K V Krishnappa, inspectors of the Department of Excise Vani and Sunanda, tried to convince the villagers but their efforts went in vain as the latter insisted on closure and demanded the presence of senior officials to arrive at a permanent solution for closure.

At noon, DySP Gangadharu Mudanaravar of the aforesaid department arrived at the spot and requested the villagers to bear for 2 days and promised to close the liquor outlet. Bowing to pressure from villagers, the landlord and Taluk Panchayat member R Mahesh withdrew his permission to run the store in the premises.

With that move, curtains came down on the 2-day-old protests and peace prevailed.