Tipplers in for a tough time into the future, now that Amma has firmed up her mind to get after them, need not despair.

The tiny Puducherry enclave Karaikal is the paradise where they can enjoy their small or large ones, and the range of beers and drinks available is much wider and trendier too, as compared to Chennai or parts of Tamil Nadu.

In fact, the TASMAC shops in Tamil Nadu present a pat recevicture of ugliness, of crowds, and brawls. In stark contrast are the very inviting, well decorated and appointed liquor shops and bars that some have attached are a treat to visit, and use, as many a drinker from Tamil Nadu would vouch, for.

And at a price that is half of what they have to pay in Tamil Nadu, thanks to the heavier taxes that push up their price of booze in Tamil Nadu.

A kingfisher beer in Tamil Nadu costing some Rs 130 is available here for just Rs 70. The range and variety available here is not there in Chennai or in other places in TN, said a habitual drinker at the shop.

Many like him, saunter from across border into the waiting bar or a liquor vend. Drink more and save more is the motto of the Bachus from Tamil Nadu.

If in Tamil Nadu prohibition, even if in a phased manner, enabled Amma to win the elections, in Puducherry prohibition is a sure fire recipe for defeat.

And this sentiment showed the other day in Karaikal, when television showed Amma signing the prohibition file, ordering the closure of 500 TASMAC shops and reduce timing of the shops, so that lesser liquor is sold and consumed. Fat chance, say die hard drinkers, who say even in Dry Gujarat state, liquor is door delivered, only the price has to be right.

In Karaikal, however, people are welcoming prohibition in Tamil Nadu as it means heavy increase in business as most of the customers at this liquor vend are from neighboring Thiruvarur – the birth place of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.

Karaikal Is surrounded by Tamil Nadu and this tiny enclave has 58 liquor shops that are licensed. What the prohibition will do is that most of these shops would shift to near the border with Tamil Nadu, said R Srinivasan, salesman tending to customers at the liquor shop, located within few meters of the border.

Srinivasan sold off stuff worth Rs 2000 in just ten minutes and more were in queue, vying for his attention.

Mahe, another Puducherry enclave near Kerala, turned into a tipplers paradise once Kerala banned bars selling liquor. Incidentally, the government that banned liquor bars has lost in Kerala, though for reasons other than its liquor policy.

“If prohibition gets speeded up, definitely our sales will soar,” said Srinivasan. More shops that are selling less away from the border will come closer, he said.

In Tamil Nadu, liquor shops increased from 1800 to 6800 in just five years.

The state earns a revenue of nearly Rs 27,000 crore from liquor sales through its Tasmac outlets, which no government is willing to let go.

But Jayalalithaa has made a beginning.

Tipplers in Tamil Nadu are watching her moves on this count, and are preparing for any eventuality.