Telangana: Kirana store owner gives Rs 50 lakh for Army welfare

HYDERABAD: Seventy-eight-year-old Sripuram Vishwanatham, who once ran a kirana shop in Huzurnagar, played the good Samaritan on Monday by donating his lifetime savings of Rs 50 lakh to the armed forces. He handed over a cheque to governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Bhavan for the Armed Forces Flag Day fund on Monday.
Vishwanatham, who shut his shop about six months ago and now lives in an old-age home, told TOI: “I donated the money as a gesture of goodwill to our armed forces.I had a friend who had joined the forces. Since then I have held the armed forces in high regard.”
“I got the idea of donating money to the armed forces four years ago. I did not want to hand over a small amount. One can understand the grief of the family of a soldier if he dies,” he explained.
Vishwanatham said he neither had a wife nor children and also did not want to leave the savings for his relatives. “It is common knowledge that relatives can be vultures trying to get your money.”
Zilla sainik welfare officer Sreenesh Nori said that soon after Vishwanatham expressed the desire to donate the money, he himself drove him to Hyderabad from the old-age home in Mattapalli village near Huzurnagar. “He was keen on making the donation as he felt he could show his love for the country,” Sreenesh told TOI. Director (Sainik Welfare), Col Ramesh Kumar, also lauded him for the donation.
When the governor asked Vishwanatham if he had kept some money for himself, he told her that he still has Rs 10 lakh in his bank account. “If not for our soldiers who stand like rocks protecting our country day and night, our neighbours like Pakistan and China would have overpowered us long ago,” he said.