Liquor vend: Saketri residents protest second time in 4 days

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 23

Residents of Saketri village, mostly women, gathered outside the liquor vend for the second time in the past four days. The vend has come up at the road leading from Sukhna Lake towards Saketri. As many as 15 women from the village marched towards the vend this evening and were later joined by a large number of men.

They forced it to shut down for the time being. A police team from the Mansa Devi Complex police station along with ACP Munish Sehgal reached the spot to prevent any untoward incident. The police said they had once again asked the villagers to talk to the administration as the vend had a licence.

Protesters said the vend was located at such a place as many people walked through the road in the wee hours, especially those going towards the lake. The presence of drunkards around the vend had made it impossible for women to pass through the area as they were afraid to take the road. They added that having two vends close to the village was not justified as one existed inside the village also.

Mahendar Singh, a resident of the village, informed that on Thursday they had asked the vend owner to put up tin sheets around the vend so that no drunkards were seen on the road and women did not have problems passing through it. The sheets have been put up but the women of the village are still not satisfied and have decided to hold another protest and force the owner to shut down the vend. Mahendar added that they would meet the Deputy Commissioner tomorrow and ask her to shift the vend to another location.