The Madras High Court has refused to buy the argument of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) that it would be difficult to implement the empty liquor bottle buyback scheme across the State for reasons such as the requirement of increased manpower and lack of space for storing the collected bottles at 5,500 liquor shops.
Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy have directed Additional Advocate-General J. Ravindran to ensure that Tasmac reconsiders the issue by September 16. They have also asked amicus curiae T. Mohan and M. Santhanaraman to come up with solutions to various problems highlighted by Tasmac in implementing the scheme.
In a report, Tasmac Managing Director L. Subramanian told the court that the scheme was first introduced in the Nilgiris district on May 15 and then in other hill stations as well as in wildlife sanctuaries on June 15 on the basis of the court orders aimed at preventing blood injuries to wild animals from the littered bottles.
Subsequently, when the court insisted on extending the scheme across the State, the Managing Director listed the problems faced so far and said the retail vending shops had no space to store the collected bottles. The court was also told about the Tasmac employees complaining about cleanliness.
“Many consumers are returning the empty bottles with a foul smell and in some cases, the ragpickers collect the empty bottles (to receive ₹10 charged above the maximum retail price while selling the bottles) from the sewers and gutters. Therefore, storing these empty bottles poses a severe health hazard to shop personnel,” the Managing Director said.
The shop personnel further complained about the additional work of collecting the bottles, storing them in gunny bags, accounting for them and finally handing them over to the contractor. They also end up facing the wrath of the consumers even if there is a little delay in refunding ₹10 during peak hours of liquor sale.
“Further, the shop personnel complain that they are put to severe mental agony and held responsible for loss of or damage to the empty bottles in their custody. Therefore, they are not able to concentrate on the sales at the counters, which is their core area of work,” the Managing Director said.
Mr. Subramanian said that even the 11 Indian Made Foreign Spirit (IMFS) manufacturers and seven beer manufacturers, who supply liquor to Tasmac, had expressed difficulties in collecting unclean empty bottles either directly from the consumers or from the retail vending shops run by Tasmac.
During the meeting with the manufacturers, it was stated that a huge network of old bottle traders functions in the State, which segregates the empty bottles company-wise and supplies them to agents appointed by various manufacturers after washing or without washing.
It was through those agents that the washed bottles land back in the hands of the manufacturers who have their own terms and conditions for collection, segregation, storage, washing, transport, payments and so on. Such a system of collection of the empty liquor bottles had been in vogue in the State for several years.
Therefore, it would be difficult for Tasmac to involve in collection of empty liquor bottles across the State since stickers would have to be pasted in every bottle indicating the shop from which it was bought so that it got returned at the same shop, he said. He also highlighted the accounting problems.
