Dubai: Kerala businessman Dr. PA Ibrahim Haji, Co-Chairman Malabar Group and Chairman PACE Group on Monday was awarded with the UAE’s 10-year permanent residency Golden card. Dr. Ibrahim Haji received his Golden card by Lieutenant Colonel Omar Matar Khamis Al Mezaina, Director of Establishment Department, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Dubai.

Dr. Ibrahim joins the list of around 400 outstanding expatriates, including business leaders who have received the Golden card since the UAE government introduced the permanent residency earlier this year.

Doctors, investors, specialists and students (those with a grade of 95 per cent and above in general secondary and university students with a grade of 3.75 and above. Executive managers with a monthly salary of Dh30,000 and above are also eligible for the long-term visa.

"Granting the 10-year visa is a great initiative by the Government of UAE. This step is in fulfillment of the visionary leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make UAE one of the most investor friendly countries in the world. It has benefited not only the investor residents of UAE but also this is an attraction for more and more businessmen from all over the world to live and establish themselves in UAE. This will also contribute not only to the economic development of this country but also technological advancement and scientific research with the advent of the skilled new generation," the company said in a statement.

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New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.

The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.

Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.

She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.

Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.

The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.

In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.

Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.