Enthused by the response to the empty liquor bottle buyback scheme implemented by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) in select districts at its instance, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the corporation to consider the feasibility of engaging additional manpower on contract basis to handle those bottles.
Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy issued the direction after an employees union of Tasmac filed a writ petition complaining that its members were being overburdened with the additional work of collecting and storing the empty liquor bottles despite them already being made to work from 12 noon to 12 am everyday.
The judges suggested that the income generated by Tasmac by selling the empty liquor bottles as well as the unclaimed amount, from ₹10 that it charges over and above the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for every liquor bottle to ensure the return of empty bottles for refunding the money, could be used for engaging additional manpower.
Though Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran said, the corporation was facing difficulties such as space constraint for storing the empty bottles, the judges said, it was a minor issue which could be solved by the corporation by identifying separate godowns in every area to store those bottles until they could be sold to third parties through public tender.
After going through a status report filed by Tasmac with respect to implementation of the scheme in various districts, the judges wondered why the sale of over 10 lakh empty bottles in Vellore district had yielded only ₹2.84 lakh whereas the sale of just 5.42 lakh empty bottles in Dindigul district had yielded over ₹11 lakh.
When the AAG explained the price of the bottles differs from brand to brand, the judges said, even then, the difference appeared to be too vast and therefore directed Tasmac to submit by July 5 the details regarding the procedures adopted by it for selling the empty liquor bottles and the price quoted for those bottles.
