haridwar in one of the first instances of attempted suicide by a protester participating in the ongoing agitation against the opening of liquor shops in residential areas across the state a 32yearold man took poison in haridwar on sunday in the presence of bjp legislator from haridwar rural swami yatishwaranand the man identified as gulshan kumar saini is currently admitted in hospital in a critical state his neighbours said that he was forced to take the extreme step because ldquopeople were continuously streaming into the liquor shop near his house and disturbing the atmosphere of the areardquo according to police local residents have been protesting for the past two months against opening of a liquor shop at radha krishna enclave of missarpur village which falls under the jurisdiction of kankhal police station on sunday mla swami yatishwaranand was at the spot where locals were protesting when saini attempted suicide a suicide note has been recovered from the man in which he blamed the owner of the liquor shop and excise officials for ldquomental harassmentrdquo ravinder kumar pradhan of missarpur village said ldquosaini was very upset because the liquor shop was close to his house he has two children and his family was feeling unsafe as people were drinking outside his house and often knocked on his door asking for water and many other thingsrdquo bjp legislator yatishwaranand blamed the district administration for its apathy ldquothe local administration is responsible for this incident i have asked the administration many times to shut this shop but no action was taken i will talk to chief minister trivendra singh rawat regarding thisrdquo he said in the past protests against shifting of liquor vends in residential areas led mostly by women groups in uttarakhand have turned aggressive with protesters in some cases resorting to arson breaking open liquor vend doors and destroying stocks in gopeshwar chamoli pithoragarh numerous protests have been witnessed in the past few months