Atlanta convenience store owners unite

FIGHTING a legal battle for being wrongly indicted in sale of addictive substances, the Indian convenience store owners of Atlanta and Georgia have now started acommunity outreach program and a dialogue with the law enforcing agencies.

More then four-fifth of convenience stores in Atlanta-Georgia are owned or operated by Gujaratis. Early June as many as 49 conve-nience store operators were arrested underOperation Meth Merchant for allegedly selling substances used in the illegal manufacture of the methamphetamine (meth), ahighly addictive substance. Of these 43 were Gujarati Patels. We know we are not guilty.We are fighting a legal battle in the court. At the same time, we want to take steps to ensure that such an incident does not occur in the future, said social activist Upendra Patel.

Hence, the Asian American Convenience Stores Association was formed recently to bring all the convenience store owners on acommon platform. Patel is the president of the Atlanta chapter of the Association.

Learning from past mistakes wherein the convenience store owners operated in isolation from the community, Patel said the association has started a dialogue process with various law enforcement agencies and local government bodies. Although Operation Meth Merchant was based in six Georgia counties, dialogue has being initiated throughout the state.