The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : PMK MLA takes campaign against liquor to the street

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Tuesday, Nov 04, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

PMK MLA takes campaign against liquor to the street

Special Correspondent

— Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan

AN EARNEST EFFORT: Taramangalam MLA P. Kannaiyan (left) conducting an anti-liquor campaign in Taramangalam on Monday.

TARAMANGALAM: Wearing an ‘uruma’ (head gear), he took to the streets of Taramangalam on Monday with a ‘thappu’ to tom-tom the ills of liquor.

Launching this novel campaign on the dusty streets of this temple town where weavers form a major chunk of the population was none other than P. Kannaiyan, Pattali Makkal Katchi MLA.

He asked people to assemble at street corners after beating the ‘thappu’ and rendered folk songs that graphically expressed how detrimental the arrack was to the poor weavers and other people.

He pointed to the pleas made by Gandhiji, Rajaji and Periyar to the people to refrain from liquor, which, he said, would destroy their lives. The crowd listened in rapt attention.

The tiny troupe of campaigners moved from street to street, distributed pamphlets. After sunset, they trooped into tiny villages and hamlets.

Mr. Kannaiyan told The Hindu that though he had been conducting this campaign for quite some time, he intensified it in view of the PMK’s anti-liquor conference, scheduled for November 6 at Salem.

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