Lulu's Yusuff Ali to help woman evicted by GCDA; to settle her rent dues
Thiruvananthapuram: Billionaire Non-Resident Keralite businessman M.A. Yusuffali has announced that he would settle the dues of a woman who was evicted by the Greater Cochin Development Corporation (GCDA) from her shop at Kochi for non-payment of rent.
Prasanna, 54, had to pay Rs 13,800 per month as rent but due to Covid and the footpath maintenance work, she was not able to open the shop and hence, not able to pay the rent.
The woman, who was supporting her mentally-challenged daughter using the returns from the street shop of the GCDA, had amassed rental dues following the closure of shops due to Covid-19.
Prasanna was served a notice of Rs 9 lakh as rent dues but didn't have any means to pay this amount. GCDA officials had shut down the shop on Wednesday and Prasanna had conducted a sit-in dharna before the shop for the past four days.
On hearing her misery, Yusuf Ali immediately deputed his Kochi office staff to meet the woman and promised her help.
An additional amount of Rs 2 lakh would be handed over to Prasanna to help her run the street shop where she was selling refreshments and juices.
"When notice was served on me, I did not have any means other than thinking about suicide. I don't have Rs 9,000 with me, how can I pay Rs 9 lakh. I and my family thank Yusuf Ali saheb wholeheartedly for this benevolence showered on us. He was literally God sent to us," Prasanna told IANS.
Yusuf Ali said: "I came to know about the woman's problems through media and I directed our office at Kochi to pay the arrears today itself. But being a Sunday, the GCDA office was closed, and on Monday morning itself, the amount will be paid and rent arrears settled. We will also be handing over Rs 2 lakh to her to restart her shop and buy necessary items for doing business."
The Lulu group was recently in the news for paying blood money of Rs 1 crore to save a Thrissur native in Abu Dhabi where he was sentenced to death after a Sudanese child was accidentally killed after the vehicle he was driving hit him. Becks Krishnan was on the death row after the accidental killing of the Sudanese boy in 2012.
Courtesy: IANS
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Niqab incident: Nitish Kumar perhaps revealing his true colours, says J-K CM
Srinagar (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday criticised his Bihar counterpart over the niqab incident and said that Nitish Kumar might be slowly revealing his true nature.
"Nitish Kumar, who was once considered a secular leader, may be slowly showing his true colours," Abdullah told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.
Abdullah said Kumar removing the face veil of a Muslim woman doctor was wrong and cannot be justified by any means.
"We have seen this kind of incident here several years ago. Have you forgotten how Mehbooba Mufti removed the burqa of a legitimate voter inside a polling station? That act was wrong, and this act (of Kumar) is also wrong.
"If the (Bihar) chief minister did not want to hand over the order to her (Muslim woman), they could have kept her aside. However, to humiliate her like this is totally wrong," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.
Kumar stirred a huge controversy after he removed the face veil of a Muslim woman at a function earlier this week.
