A bridge for tipplers that connects Tamil Nadu to Pondy

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Where there’s a will there’s a way — actually, a bridge.

Although the Pennaiyar river, flowing across the territorial limits of Puducherry and the neighbouring district of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, is in spate, curtailing the movement of people living in the outlying villages, tipplers who cross over from the border villages of Vellichimandalam and Chavady to arrack vends in Puducherry, known as a 'guzzlers paradise', do not lose heart.

Arrack shop-owners in Puducherry, facing dull business over the last few weeks, used native knowledge and erected a makeshift wooden bridge to enable tipplers from Tamil Nadu reach arrack shops located at Araichikuppam in Puducherry. The floodwaters have gone down, but not the flow of tipplers.

The 1-km-long ‘bridge’, supported by poles and wooden planks and connecting Vellichimandalam, Chavady and the surrounding villages of Cuddalore with the other side of the border, has been erected without authorisation.

“The arrack shops at Araichikuppam in Kuruvinatham block have a good chunk of tipplers from Cuddalore and the surrounding villages because Puducherry is the only southern state licensed to sell arrack and toddy. It is a risk for the tipplers to move into Puducherry and walk away after taking the brew,” said an excise department official.

“This is not the first time that such an adventurous initiative has been resorted to by the arrack shop-owners. An arrack shop-owner pressed a coracle into service to ferry tipplers from Tamil Nadu to Puducherry during heavy rains sometime back. However, the Cuddalore district administration issued a stern warning and closed the illegal service due to security risks,” said a senior official.

It is surprising how the present bridge has escaped the attention of the law enforcement authorities on both sides of the border.

It only proves that liquor knows no barriers and arrack vends at Araichikuppam do good business whether it rains or shines.