TASMAC workers left high and dry as 717 shops shut across Tamil Nadu

B. Soundarraj has spent 23 years behind the counter of a TASMAC shop at the Pudukkottai town bus stand — the precise reason it was ordered shut on May 12. Ten days on, he is yet to receive a transfer or redeployment letter or hear from the higher-ups in TASMAC.

“My two daughters in Chennai are waiting for coaching fees — one preparing for bank exams, the other for the UPSC,” he said and added: “I don’t know what to tell them.”

On May 12, Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay directed the TASMAC to close 717 retail outlets located within 500 metres of places of worship, educational institutions, and bus stands — out of 4,765 shops across the State. The order, welcomed by the public, was silent on the employees of the 717 shops.

In Pudukkottai, 11 of the 16 shops have been shut. In Tiruchi, 10 out of 16 shops, and in Thanjavur, all six shops have been shut — leaving over 40 supervisors, salesmen, and support staff without a workstation. In Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai, seven more number of shops have been closed, with Tiruvarur figures still emerging.

The wages these workers take home are modest. A supervisor draws a gross salary of ₹16,850 and his take-home pay is ₹14,740. A salesman grosses ₹14,530, taking home ₹12,476. An assistant salesman’s gross of ₹13,340 leaves him ₹11,429 at month’s end — after deductions, a sum that covers a child’s monthly tuition fee at a coaching institution in Chennai.

For Mr. Soundarraj, a supervisor, the ₹14,740 he takes home each month has been the sole thread holding two daughters’ ambitions in place.

In Nagapattinam, salesman R. Babu — whose ₹12,476 in-hand pays for his daughter’s Class IX fees at a private school — is facing the same wall. “What do I tell them?” he asked. “That the government closed my shop but forgot to tell me what comes next?”

Multiple employees, unwilling to be named for fear of reprisal, said they had received nothing in writing — not even informal word — about whether they would be transferred, redeployed, or simply left in suspension. “Not even a WhatsApp message from the office,” said one Tiruchi salesman with over a decade of service.

Kodeeswaran S. of the AITUC TASMAC union in Thanjavur has met the District Manager on behalf of the affected workers. “He heard us. But he has no answers,” he said.

The human arithmetic is considerable: 717 shops, each staffed by five to 15 permanent employees, points to a disruption touching nearly 3,600 workers statewide — with no public transition plan in sight.

When The Hindu contacted district managers in Tiruchi, Pudukkottai, and neighbouring districts, each confirmed that a State-level meeting between the TASMAC Managing Director, Senior Regional Managers, and District Managers was scheduled for Friday — and that further clarity would emerge by Monday.